Both Oracle and PeopleSoft acknowledged Thursday that their merger battle will rage into the future, even as the latter confirmed that it expected to complete its purchase of J.D. Edwards today.

PeopleSoft's financial forecast for the current quarter takes into account an expected $10 million to $12 million tab for fighting off Oracle's unwanted advances, said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Parker in a conference call with analysts. That will reduce the company's earnings per share by 2 cents, to a range between 13 cents and 14 cents, he said. The Oracle bid cost PeopleSoft $14 million in extra expenses in the second quarter, which ended June 30.

PeopleSoft expects revenue for the current quarter to be $470 million to $480 million, slightly lower than the second quarter's $497 million because of the summer lull. PeopleSoft's profit in the second quarter was $36.5 million, or 11 cents per share, which was little changed from the year-ago quarter and within the expectations the company set out when it pre-announced results earlier this month.

The much larger Oracle of Redwood City targeted PeopleSoft with a hostile takeover bid shortly after the Pleasanton softwaremaker announced its intention to buy Denver's J.D. Edwards in June. At the time, many observers thought Oracle would carry out its plan only if it could get PeopleSoft without J.D. Edwards.

But now Oracle is targeting PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards as a unit.

"Oracle remains committed to acquiring PeopleSoft -- even with the addition of J.D. Edwards," said spokesman Jim Finn in an e-mailed release.

Oracle demonstrated its determination to complete its hostile takeover Thursday by hosting the first of a series of town hall conference calls with PeopleSoft customers. Customers submitted questions that were read by an announcer and answered by Oracle Executive Vice President Charles Phillips.

Most of the questions reflected the fear among PeopleSoft customers that an Oracle takeover would hurt their multimillion-dollar investments in PeopleSoft's business automation software. They asked for details on how long Oracle would support PeopleSoft products, exactly what kind of improvements Oracle would make on the products as they aged and how J.D. Edwards customers would fare under the takeover.

Phillips reiterated Oracle promises to support and enhance PeopleSoft's products longer than PeopleSoft would have ordinarily.

"Should that transaction close and we buy the combined company, J.D. Edwards customers would be treated the same way," Phillips said.

Analyst Ron Hanscome said there's a limit to how much Oracle's words can placate nervous PeopleSoft customers.

"Everybody is rather skeptical," said Hanscome, whose employer, Meta Group, advises companies on technology purchases. "There's always a lot of good statements made at the front end of these deals. . . . If you say you're going to support the software for 10 years I'm sure you're going to do that, but I'm still wondering -- how much support?"

Shares of PeopleSoft rose 1 cent to close at $17.90 before the earnings announcement, and slipped to $17.82 in after-hours trading. J.D. Edwards shares closed at $14.70, unchanged. Shares of Oracle closed at $12.09, down 36 cents, or 2.6 percent.