HIT: Oracle buys Siebel for $5.85B

The rumors, it turns out, were true. Continuing its policy of buying horizontal and vertical application vendors, database giant Oracle announced plans to acquire Siebel Systems for $5.85 billion. The acquisition is likely to be felt most in the pharmaceutical industry, where Siebel is a well-established player in sales force management software and where Oracle, apart from its databases, is already a big player in clinical trial applications. Health plans, which have traditionally been reticent to use CRM applications, may see some more interesting deals offered their way. Finally, speculation about Oracle's next move in healthcare will continue, with HIS giant Cerner continually mentioned as a target.

- see this story from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)