Now that Oracle Corp. has intensified its hostile attempt to buy PeopleSoft Inc., employees at the smaller firm's verdant Pleasanton campus are once again concerned about their job security.

Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison has made it clear that if he gets the smaller softwaremaker, his first order of business will be slashing costs. In corporate America, that could mean cutting thousands of jobs.

With Oracle raising its offer price to $26 per share from $19.50, the $9. 7 billion mega-merger has a better chance of being accepted by investors. But much like Wall Street, which failed to send PeopleSoft shares rocketing after Wednesday's announcement, employees still have their doubts about whether it will happen.

"I think people are a little concerned," said Daniel Adeniji, 35, of Fremont, who admitted being a bit more worried about the takeover than he had been last week. Still, he doubted PeopleSoft's board would agree to deal -- even with the higher price.

"They'll give it consideration, but I don't think it will happen," he said.

PeopleSoft's directors are weighing the sweetened offer, and some analysts feel that it would be difficult for them to turn it down without facing shareholder wrath. However, the deal could still be stopped by regulators, which some Justice Department insiders say is the likely outcome, according to media reports. A decision is expected by March 12.

"It's not the first time Oracle made an offer," said employee Salvador Maiorano, 37, taking a break next to the headquarters' basketball court. "I'm waiting for what the legal department does, not for the next offer."

Maiorano of Dublin is proud of the company and wants it to remain its own, independent firm. He also has reason to worry about possible job cuts in a buyout. A native of Argentina, his visa is tied to his job.

But he tried Thursday to remain philosophical. If the buyout happens, he said, some people would keep their jobs, and the company would, in a sense, continue as part of another.

After Ellison announced his intentions this summer, analysts estimated 4, 000 to 5,000 of PeopleSoft's 8,000 employees would get the ax. Since then, PeopleSoft acquired Denver softwaremaker J.D. Edwards, increasing its headcount, after eliminating 740 redundant jobs, to about 12,000. It's not clear if PeopleSoft's new, larger workforce would face even more staff cuts in a takeover than originally estimated.

PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway is among the employees who could lose his job. But the executive is likely to feel even more philosophical about the prospect because he's in line to receive a severance package worth more than $40 million in the event of a takeover, based on the $26-per-share offer.

Former employee Robert Mijango said that current PeopleSoft workers are already so numbed by the constant fear of job cuts that they're not quaking at the prospect of an Oracle takeover.

Mijango and other employees say that in addition to the announced layoffs related to the J.D. Edwards merger, PeopleSoft has for years been letting people go quietly in small batches.

Employees "don't care whether Oracle buys out PeopleSoft and lays them off, or if Craig (Conway) continues to lay off. ... They're thinking, hey -- we'll be laid off one way or the other," said Mijango, who worked at the Pleasanton softwaremaker as a systems engineer from 1995 until he was let go in 2002.

PeopleSoft spokesman Steve Swasey declined to respond to Mijango's comment, except to confirm that the company said in September that it would cut between 750 and 1,000 jobs as part of the J.D. Edwards merger, a process that is still ongoing.

If PeopleSoft's local workers do lose their jobs, Pleasanton will hate to see them go. PeopleSoft is the city's largest employer, and Mayor Tom Pico said a large reduction in workforce here would have a massive impact on the local economy.

"As a supporter of PeopleSoft and the PeopleSoft employees, I'm not in favor of seeing this takeover prevail," Pico added. "Just because someone has the money to do this, it doesn't make it either ethically or morally right."

City Manager Deborah Acosta McKeehan said she's concerned about PeopleSoft employees' futures. As for Pleasanton -- a city of almost 68,000 -- even the loss of all 3,500 PeopleSoft employees wouldn't turn it into a ghost town, she said.

"We've got about 20 Fortune 500 companies here" including Safeway Inc., Clorox Co. and Documentum, she said. "We're quite a diverse economy."