Briefs

Investors Hit Oracle, Siebel After Downgrades

Aug. 10, 2001 Software giants Oracle and Siebel Systems were hit by analyst downgrades early Friday.

Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund cut his fiscal-year 2002 estimates for Oracle to 46 cents per share from 48 cents per share and says he now expects little growth in database servers or applications for the year.

Sherlund says he had expected flat growth in databases, where Oracle is a market leader, but now he expects a 5 percent decline. In applications, he had expected 5 percent gains and now expects no growth. he says.

For CRM leader Siebel, San Mateo, Calif., Sherlund cut his forecast to 56 cents per share from 60 cents for fiscal 2001 and from 70 cents to 50 cents for fiscal 2002.

Oracle and Siebel shares dropped significantly after downgrades.

See http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/breakingnews.asp?ArticleID=28891