Put another $20 million or so in the bank. Siebel sold their Sales.com business but kept a minority interest. I was never particularly enthusiastic about the concept as a strategy, so I'm happier with Siebel having the cash.
--Mike Buckley
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SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999--Sales.com, Inc. (www.sales.com), the premier Web destination for sales professionals, delivering a complete suite of sales-related tools, content, and services, today became an independent, private company.
Formerly a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SEBL), Sales.com recently secured $27 million in private financing from Sequoia Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, and Siebel Systems. Operating as one of the Internet's most successful and fastest-growing application service providers, Sales.com plans to use this financing to dramatically extend its strong market position and continue to penetrate the explosive market for online sales professionals.
"Sales.com delivers everything that a sales professional needs to be successful in today's fast-paced, wired world," said Don Valentine, founding partner, Sequoia Capital. "Sales.com is the undisputed market leader in delivering hosted applications, content and services for sales professionals."
Sales.com directly targets the business needs of the nearly 40 million sales professionals worldwide. Sales.com helps sales professionals maximize their time, productivity, and revenue by providing them with comprehensive, Web-based sales opportunity, contact and account management tools licensed from Siebel Systems, the global market leader in customer relationship management.
"Sales.com is a visionary in the realm of Internet-hosted applications," said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc., which powers Sales.com. "Early on, Sun recognized that Sales.com was going to change the way sales professionals live and work by delivering essential tools and services directly to them via the Internet." Sun worked closely with Sales.com to architect its site and to ensure highly reliable and scalable services for its sales professional audience.
Sales professionals rely on Sales.com every day to help improve their personal productivity and effectiveness. Sales.com delivers daily business briefings on key accounts and competitors, ensuring sales professionals are armed with the latest and most accurate business intelligence before every call. When prospecting for new business, sales representatives rely on the fully integrated Sales Prospector Database of more than 15 million names, delivered in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet, the world's largest and most comprehensive source of business-related information on public and private companies.
Highly competitive, sales professionals continually improve their selling skills by seeking advice, getting tips and learning new selling techniques from seasoned sales experts and peers at both the Sales.com Career Center and the Professional Sales Network. Sales.com provides a comprehensive library of sales-related books, articles, and training courses from industry-leading organizations such as OnTarget and Miller Heiman. More than 50 hosted discussion groups, including an interactive ask-the-expert forum, provide the sales person with the opportunity to actively collaborate online regarding critical sales issues. Creating an online community for sales professionals, Sales.com unites the frequently remote, disconnected sales person into a global sales network.
Sales professionals save time and money by conducting online meetings in the virtual office, making travel reservations directly, and accessing door-to-door directions and weather reports. Sales.com Business and Travel Services are delivered in partnership with WebEx and Rosenbluth Interactive (Biz Travel.com), the leading providers of Web-based business collaborations and 24x7 travel services.
Sales.com has assembled a world-class board of directors, including Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and CEO, Siebel Systems; Pat House, executive vice president and co-founder, Siebel Systems; Don Valentine, founding partner, Sequoia Capital; Irwin Federman, general partner, U.S. Venture Partners; and Ken Goldman, senior vice president and chief financial officer, Excite@Home.
"Sales.com has experienced tremendous growth in its first year of operations," said Thomas M. Siebel, chairman and CEO, Siebel Systems, Inc. "Operating now as an independent, well-capitalized company with a singular focus, Sales.com is poised to dominate the market for online sales professionals and become one of the great Internet software and services companies."
As a result of the private financing transaction, Siebel Systems has become a non-controlling shareholder of Sales.com.
About Sales.com
Sales.com, Inc. (www.sales.com) is a leading provider of powerful, Web-based sales productivity solutions. Partnering with industry leaders Sun Microsystems, Dun & Bradstreet, Monster.com, Rosenbluth Interactive, WebEx, OnTarget, and Miller Heiman, Sales.com delivers a tightly integrated suite of essential tools and services uniquely tailored to maximize a sales professional's time, effectiveness, and productivity. This includes state-of-the-art sales productivity software, up-to-the-minute business intelligence on top accounts and competitors, an extensive prospect database of more than 15 million leads, articles, and tips from leading sales experts, community-building networking forums, virtual office capabilities, and a full-service travel agency. Sales.com headquarters are located in San Mateo, CA, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
About Siebel Systems
Siebel Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SEBL) is the world's leading supplier of Web-based front office software systems. Siebel Systems provides an integrated family of sales, marketing and customer service application software for field sales, customer service, telesales, telemarketing, field service, third-party resellers and Internet based eCommerce. Siebel Systems' products are designed to meet the needs of small, medium and large businesses. Siebel Systems' sales and service facilities are deployed locally in more than 20 countries and can be reached through the World Wide Web at www.siebel.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties for Sales.com, Inc. (the "Company") The future operating results of the Company may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the timely development, availability and market acceptance of the Company's website and related products and .services, the dependence of the Company on third party product and service providers, the Company's ability to attract and retain key management and other employees, and the impact of competitive websites.
Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk or uncertainties for Siebel Systems, Inc. The future operating results of Siebel Systems may differ from the results discussed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to due to risks and uncertainties relating to Sales.com's business including, but not limited to, the timely development, availability and market acceptance of the Sales.com's website and related products and services, the dependence of Sales.com on third party product and service providers, the Sales.com's ability to attract and retain key management and other employees, and the impact of competitive websites. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Siebel Systems are included in Siebel Systems' Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sales.com is a trademark of Sales.com, Inc. Siebel is a trademark of Siebel Systems, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only. |
