IBM alliance not precursor to takeover, says Siebel

Siebel Systems has refuted suggestions it will be acquired by IBM in the future, following the two vendors' announcement last night of a new development and marketing alliance.

Siebel's closest rivals in the burgeoning Customer Relationship Management (CRM) arena, Clarify and Vantive, have both been the subject of takeovers by Nortel Networks and Peoplesoft respectively in the past month.

Siebel Europe vice president Alex Ott denied the alliance was merely a precursor to full-scale acquisition by IBM.

"We would like it to be the other way round," Ott joked. "Siebel is the only independent vendor out there and the company intends to keep it like that."

While still in its infancy, with an estimated five per cent market share to date, many analysts believe CRM will spark the next major applications boom. Some estimate the market, currently worth around $2.5 billion globally, will grow to $16 billion early next century.

Ensuring they get a healthy share of this pie has been top priority for established vendors. While Oracle has opted to develop its own offering, Peoplesoft and IBM believe they stand a better chance of winning the race by joining forces with the early market leaders.

The IBM Siebel alliance will see the two vendors work together to integrate Siebel products with IBM platforms and ebusiness solutions. No plans are in place for joint development of new products, but executives from both companies acknowledged this was a possibility in the future.

A joint solutions centre is to be established in Paris by the year's end.