Oracle Corp.?s bid to acquire Siebel Systems Inc. for US$5.8 billion is expected to be a quicker and friendlier transaction than the PeopleSoft acquisition which was seen by many as a hostile takeover.

At the Oracle OpenWorld conference last month, Oracle president Charles Phillips said that the regulatory approval process for the Siebel acquisition is anticipated to be a quick one and that the transaction is expected to close in early 2006. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently. Oracle is acquiring Siebel for $10.66 per share.

Siebel is a leading provider of customer-facing enterprise applications. According to Phillips, the combined complementary capabilities of Oracle and Siebel provide customers with a complete set of information age software. ?The timing is right,? said Phillips about the plan to acquire Siebel. ?Siebel?s features and functionality will complement and enhance Project Fusion.?

Announced earlier this year, Project Fusion is a new application product line that intends to merge the assets of all the applications of the companies Oracle has acquired into a next-generation product suite.

According to Phillips, the move to acquire Siebel is consistent with Oracle?s goal to provide a set of competitive enterprise applications for customers. Siebel provides customer relationship management, analytics, customer data integration, and industry solutions. On the other hand, Oracle provides enterprise resource planning (ERP) and infrastructure technologies to complete an expanded 360-degree, real-time view across the enterprise.

Phillips revealed that Oracle plans to retain key personnel and maintain the momentum in Siebel development, support, sales, professional services, and On Demand. In addition, the investments customers have made in Siebel applications will continue to be supported and protected as the centerpiece of Oracle?s Fusion CRM strategy.

Meanwhile, as far as the channel partners are concerned, Phillips said that Siebel?s partners will benefit from Oracle?s worldwide resources and increased partner investments. On the other hand, Oracle partners will benefit from Siebel?s best-in-class customer-facing products, customer experience consulting, and proven best practices tailored to industry needs. The combination is expected to result in Oracle being the largest customer relationship management practice in many firms.

Oracle refused to further comment on specific future integration plans until the transaction is complete.

With revenues of $1.3 billion in 2004, Siebel currently has 3.4 million live CRM users and 4,000 customers. It has 5,000 employees located in 80 offices in 33 countries.