Siebel looks to do more ...

As expected, Siebel (SEBL) has started moving to more valuable services that are natural extensions to its CRM business. It bought Edocs, an electronic billing software/services provider. This is a step in the right direction - it remains to be seen if Siebel will make more drastic moves - to areas like customer data mining/analysis or call center management software/services.

With the Edocs purchase, one potential loser is Portal Software (PRSF), a billing software maker. Siebel was one of the strongest possible candidates for buying Portal.