Siebel foresees CRM bloodbath

The characteristically bullish prediction came during Siebel's first European User trade show event in Cannes.

"Sixty of the 80 CRM businesses will be out of business by the end of the year," he told delegates. "There is a big, big consolidation."

Siebel itself has been hit by the dot-com slump, announcing 800 dismissals this month - ten per cent of the workforce. Siebel said that half of these dismissals were routine, as the company has a policy of laying off the worst-performing five per cent of staff each year.

Particular companies he singled out for the drop include Partnership Relationship Management vendors ChannelWave and PartnerWare. "The chances of them surviving the year are zero," said Siebel.

He confirmed that Siebel plans to make "five to ten" acquisitions by the end of the year. The choices would be made on "the basis of strong engineering teams, unique technologies or vertical market expertise. We are not interested in buying revenue streams," said Siebel.

The company has no plans to move into the enterprise resource planning field, which Siebel described as "a crummy space." He confirmed, however, that he has received repeated requests for a takeover from some of the smaller, struggling players - a remark which would almost certainly refer to Baan and JD Edwards.

He has not received such a request from SAP. "They haven't yet, but they will," he said, before later pointing that he was joking.

Siebel's ASP business has received "next to zero" interest from customers, Siebel told journalists, though he did not mention any plans to close it down as yet.

Siebel also made some typically sabre-rattling remarks at the expense of his traditional rivals, Oracle and SAP. "Our systems will soon be better integrated with their own products than theirs are," he added.