Don't expect a "white knight" to charge into the fracas and rescue PeopleSoft Inc. from Oracle Corp. in the near future, an analyst said Friday.

In a study of potential white knights, such as IBM, Microsoft and BEA Systems, Gartner analyst Betsy Burton found that the potential candidates don't have a compelling reason to swoop in at this point.

In IBM's case, for instance, "there wasn't any threat so strong," nor was there enough of a benefit, to drive IBM to change its business software strategy, Burton said.

But Burton and others aren't ruling out the possibility that a white knight could emerge in the future, especially as the software industry continues to consolidate.

"I do think IBM would be interested," said Ken Marlin, managing partner of New York investment bank Marlin & Associates. "They wouldn't come in until invited and right now nobody's inviting them."

Two things would have to happen, he said. PeopleSoft's board has to come to the conclusion that its loss of independence is inevitable. The second is that PeopleSoft has to believe that IBM will pay a price at least equal, if not more, than what has been offered by Oracle. PeopleSoft disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that "future circumstances might make it advisable or necessary for the company to engage in discussions or negotiations with third parties regarding extraordinary transactions" such as a sale or a merger.