By Dawn Kawamoto
Friday, February 10 2006 09:37 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39310689,00.htm

Oracle outlined its integration plans for Siebel Systems on Thursday, with 2,000 job cuts among the most notable tasks at hand.

Oracle, which closed its US$5.85 billion merger with Siebel last week, plans to cut 2,000 jobs across the Siebel and Oracle work forces, Oracle Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz said during a conference call with analysts.

"We will retain...Siebel's product development and product sales and marketing teams," said Catz.

The layoffs had been expected, with many observers thinking the cuts would hit Oracle's customer relationship management employees the hardest. Oracle had previously said it would use Siebel technology as its core CRM product.

"We will retain 90 percent of Siebel's support, development engineers, sales and sales consultants," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Most of the Siebel cuts will be in the back office, and nontechnical staff. The majority of the cuts will be Oracle people, not Siebel."

Ellison added that Siebel's sales force will remain intact as a separate CRM sales team, given that Siebel had a larger CRM sales group. Some Oracle CRM sales representatives will be folded into the group.

With the job cuts, Oracle will be left with a global work force of 55,000 employees. Delivery of the layoff notices has already begun, and the bulk of the pink slips will be handed out in the next few weeks.

For Oracle, mapping out integration plans is becoming a common occurrence, as the database and applications giant continues its aggressive acquisition efforts.

The database and applications software giant is interested in snapping up middleware and business intelligence companies, Ellison said during an investment conference Thursday.

Last September, Oracle announced plans to acquire G-Log, a maker of logistics and transportation management software. And earlier in the year, Oracle won a bidding war for retail applications software maker Retek.