<font color=black>Siebel Posts Loss, Forecast Disappoints
Thursday October 17, 9:55 pm ET
By Lisa Baertlein
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Software maker Siebel Systems Inc.(NasdaqNM:SEBL - News) on Thursday posted a third-quarter net loss, its first in four years, and issued a current-quarter forecast below Wall Street's consensus expectation.....
....Siebel Systems said it would book a fourth-quarter restructuring charge of $140 million to $165 million. The company said it was not cutting any more jobs beyond the 1,122 it had cut during the past quarter.
Tom Siebel forecast fourth-quarter earnings per share, excluding charges, in the "mid-single digits" in cents on software revenues of $135 million to $165 million.
Siebel Systems reported software license revenues of $250.2 million and net earnings of 13 cents per diluted share in the fourth-quarter of 2001.
Analysts, on average, had forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 7 cents a share, according to research firm Thomson First Call. Analysts told Reuters they were expecting fourth-quarter software sales of around $160 million prior to the call.
Tom Siebel said his company and Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) would make a major announcement on Monday, but declined to provide details.
He said, however, that Microsoft was not buying Siebel Systems, nor making an equity investment in the company, as had been widely rumored.
Siebel shares are down nearly 76 percent so far this year. The stock of rival PeopleSoft(NasdaqNM:PSFT - News), which also reported on Thursday, is down 63 percent year-to-date.
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