A last-minute out-of- court settlement has averted a #10m high court action and ended a row that has raged for two years between North West Water and Oracle, writes Tim Stammers.

Lawyers for the two companies met last month in preparation for a court battle in which the utility was expected to claim damages of up to #10m from Oracle.

The software giant abandoned work on an ambitious water management system at the utility in 1995, after it allegedly attempted to raise its price in response to specification changes.

Oracle is the second major supplier to have fallen out with North West Water since the utility embarked on a massive #340m revamp of its systems in 1992.

Price Waterhouse was dismissed as consultant to the revamp after it advised the utility to use a mainframe platform. NWW ignored the advice until last year, when it executed a costly U-turn and dumped newly installed client-server hardware for an IBM mainframe.

A spokeswoman for the utility refused to answer any questions about the project Oracle had been working on, or about dealings with Oracle or Price Waterhouse.