The Rocky Mountain state has come to PeopleSoft Inc.

Bill Owens, the second-term governor of Colorado, and John Hickenlooper, the newly elected mayor of Denver, are in the Bay Area on a 48-hour tour to prospect for business, and they will sit down today with PeopleSoft Chief Executive Craig Conway to hear his plans for J.D. Edwards.

"Mostly, I am going to listen," Hickenlooper said. "I want to know what his vision is for his company and for what he plans to do here and in Colorado."

Hickenlooper said he expects Denver to lose 500 to 1,000 jobs in the coming months as Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft completes its friendly takeover of its smaller software rival.

"It's certainly my hope, and I do believe this, that when you have large mergers like that, the company that emerges is going to be stronger," he said. "That stronger company will eventually expand here and in Colorado, and I expect to make up those jobs. I see a lot more benefit in working together rather than having communities competing against each other."

A PeopleSoft spokesman declined to comment.

Ordinarily, the out-of-towners -- who say they are not here to steal away California companies but to convince companies that already have a major presence in Colorado to keep jobs there and consider adding more jobs in the state -- wouldn't attract much attention. California gets plenty of politicos from other states looking to filch a few companies or some venture capital dough.

But the technodrama swirling around Oracle Corp.'s hostile takeover attempt has put the spotlight on PeopleSoft, which sped up its merger with J.D. Edwards to repel Oracle's advances.

The $1.8 billion merger vaults PeopleSoft over Oracle into the No. 2 spot in the $20 billion business software market behind German software giant SAP AG.

Oracle has responded by saying it will pay up to $7.5 billion for PeopleSoft now that it has merged with J.D. Edwards.

While in Denver last month to address J.D. Edwards employees, Conway said he would consider moving some operations from Pleasanton to Denver because of the high cost of living and of doing business in California. He said at the time that the merger would not result in massive layoffs, as some analysts have predicted. PeopleSoft, which after the merger is completed later this month will have 13,000 employees, has estimated the merger will generate $150 million to $200 million in so-called "synergies."

Hickenlooper, Owens and their entourage will call on 100 companies during this economic development mission to encourage businesses to maintain or expand their operations in Colorado and to attract new businesses to the state, said Owens' spokesman Dan Hopkins. They are touting the quality of life, the lower cost of doing business and cost of living and business-friendly government in Colorado.

"I am not surprised that the new mayor of Denver is out here along with the governor of Colorado trying to do what they can to make sure they protect the jobs of the folks who work for J.D. Edwards in the Denver area," said Pleasanton mayor Tom Pico.

Pico says he's not worried even if some PeopleSoft jobs migrate to Colorado. "My sense is we are probably not talking about thousands of jobs being lost as we would be if Oracle was successful in its takeover of PeopleSoft."