older, often unstable proprietary object specifications (also called "specs") with a new XML-based system, proving to be much more reliable. Tools Release 8.97 shipped a new web service layer allowing the JD Edwards software to communicate with third-party systems. Acquisition by PeopleSoft and Oracle In June 2003, the JD Edwards board agreed to an offer in which PeopleSoft, a former competitor of JD Edwards, would acquire JD Edwards. The takeover was completed in July. OneWorld was added to PeopleSoft's software line, along with PeopleSoft's flagship product Enterprise, and was renamed JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. Within days of the PeopleSoft announcement, Oracle Corporation mounted a hostile takeover bid of PeopleSoft. Although the first attempts to purchase the company were rebuffed by the PeopleSoft board of directors, by December 2004 the board decided to accept Oracle's offer. The final purchase went through in January 2005; Oracle now owned both PeopleSoft and JD Edwards. Most JD Edwards customers, employees, and industry analysts predicted Oracle would kill the JD Edwards products. However, Oracle saw a position for JDE in the medium-sized company space that was not filled with either its e-Business Suite or its newly acquired PeopleSoft Enterprise product. EnterpriseOne and World software in Oracle portfolio Oracle's JD Edwards products are known as JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World. Oracle announced that JD Edwards support would continue until at least 2033. Support for the older releases such as the Xe product were to expire by 2013, spurring the acceptance of upgrades to newer application releases. By 2015, the latest offering of EnterpriseOne was application version 9.2, released October 2015. The latest version of World (now with a web-based interface) was version A9.4, released in April 2015. Shortly after Oracle acquired PeopleSoft and JD Edwards in 2005, Oracle announced the development of a new product called Oracle Fusion Applications. Fusion was designed to co-exist or replace JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World, as well as Oracle E-Business Applications Suite and other products acquired by Oracle, and was finally released in September 2010. Despite the release of Fusion apps, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World is still sold and supported by Oracle and runs numerous businesses worldwide. See also Oracle Corporation – The parent corporation that acquired JD Edwards and PeopleSoft in 2004 Oracle Fusion Applications – envisioned and pitched as an Enterprise resource planning suite: a combination of features and functionalities taken from Oracle E-Business Suite, JD