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Oracle To Buy Siebel
jondaw writes "The BBC is reporting that "Software giant Oracle is buying US rival Siebel Systems in a deal worth $5.85bn (£3.2bn) in cash and stock...'In a single step, Oracle becomes the number one CRM [customer relationship management] applications company in the world,' said Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison.""
Today is a big shopping day, and when that happens I love watching the buzz spread. Here are some graphs that show the spreading:
- eBay AND Skype
- Oracle AND Siebel.
- the above graphs combined.
Simpy
These acquisitions insure that their database business doesn't suffer by suddenly NOT being offered (unlikely but always a possibility [and if I was selling DB/2, I'd worry,]) or that some NEW database engine gets a foot hold in the marketplace (more likely.)
We're seeing the death of competition in the database market.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
An amusing anecdote:
I worked at Siebel a long time ago, briefly. I am not aware of the details of what went down between Tom Siebel and Oracle, but he didn't like them very much and this was common knowledge. So, we had a some sort of company-wide meeting, where the execs orated at length about various things I no longer remember. This was webcast to all the remote offices, so we got to watch. At one point, while discussing the goals of Siebel for the next little while, Tom muttered, half under his breath, that they hope to complete the transition from an Oracle to DB2 as soon as possible. This wasn't meant to be funny but the entire auditorium (a few hundred people at least) howled. Truly, a high point in any meeting. He looked rather unhappy.
Even as you read this, your pants are strangling your loins! Aaa!
Yep, both companies are headquartered in San Mateo County, California. They are two exits away from each other on the 101.
On the Siebel home page they describe the advantages of the merger i.e. better customer satisfaction..blah..blah blah..
But check out this on Siebel website. It has several comments on how the PeopleSoft/Oracle merger is bad for customers.
Just as an example: Peoplesoft/ORACLE merger is a loss for the CRM market.
Someone better feed these web-developers to clean up the pages!
How about some anti-trust/ monopoly action?
- Sh!t
I've dealt with both Siebel and Oracle as a system implementor and someone using their tech support. Oracle's support is better.
Siebel is notorious for asking your for more and more data until you reach the point of diminishing returns and just give up. We had to find so many work arounds to Siebel bugs I knew more than some Siebel product managers.
This will help Siebel customers because the code will improve, cost less, and support more platforms. Plus the Siebel applications will be able to compete with Salesforce.com now.
Non illegemati carborundum est!
Oracle is a US company based in Redwood Shores, CA.
Siebel is a US company based in San Mateo, CA.
SAP is the German player in the ERP/CRM market.
I find that Oracle support varies a lot from product to product. The smaller products seem to have better support than the bigger ones.
The quality also varies with what time you log the support request. For the best responses try to enter the request when India is asleep. I do not why the Indian techs are so bad, but I suspect it has something to do with the churn they have in India, people quit before they become halfway competent. Another big problem might be the incentives Oracle are offering. It seems that some of them in a mad dash to get the support request away from themselves only give the request a cursory glance and enters an almost random question.