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Technology Stocks : Siebel Systems (SEBL) - strong buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: snail who wrote (1249)	3/12/1998 10:32:00 PM
From: Shege Dambanza	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6974

Some more thoughts on the merger. Mergers and acquisitions in general have not proven to be successful, at least in terms of giving shareholders greater returns than the sum of the parts. I don't have numbers on this, but I would imagine that mergers of 'equals' are less successful than sharks swallowing minnows (Cisco model). Bigger egos, comparable customer base etc. Given mergers of roughly equivalent-size companies there are cost savings to be realized by consolidating infrastructure. Less important in a high-growth segment, but useful nonetheless. Mergers such as this show promise if the product lines can be maintained and sold separately, or one product line eliminated and the infrastructure applied to the surviving product line. This would explain the buzz behind the waste companies getting together. Mergers of equivalent companies with complementary product lines that need to be integrated would be the most expensive, I think. The infrastructure has to support two product lines, while one is being phased out and the other expanded. The SEBL/SCOP bet is therefore this: current and future growth rates can be maintained while - consolidating infrastructure - consolidating product lines - consolidating customer base But as Melissa says, I'm sure Tom has figured it out. Forgive my ignorance but can anyone give me a few examples of successful (for shareholders) mergers of software companies of roughly equal size and complementary product lines that were consolidated?