Siebel Bounces Back

Siebel Systems Inc.'s health is improving under the leadership of CEO Mike Lawrie, who took over after founder Tom Siebel stepped down from the top post in May.

The maker of customer-relationship-management software, which six months ago fell $50 million short of second-quarter revenue expectations, said Wednesday it expects fourth-quarter earnings to beat expectations across the board.

Siebel expects its revenue to hit up to $390 million for the quarter, exceeding analyst estimates of about $347 million. Siebel says license revenue, which analysts predicted would be about $129 million, is expected to fall between $159 million and $161 million. And it expects profit to approach $44 million, compared with analyst estimates of around $38 million.

As the company's performance has improved, it has also managed to sock away about $85 million, increasing its reserves to around $2.24 billion, even after shelling out $115 million to buy E-billing and customer-self-service software vendor edocs Inc. That acquisition, disclosed last month, is expected to close early this year, and Siebel anticipates taking a one-time merger-related charge of 1 cent per share for the current quarter.

Siebel will reveal formal financial results and offer 2005 guidance during a conference call on Jan. 27.