SAP abandons Siebel lawsuit

NEWS German ERP firm, SAP, has dropped its "predatory hiring practices" lawsuit against rival enterprise software vendor, Siebel Systems. No reason has been given. SAP's suit - filed in September 1999 - alleged that Siebel was poaching SAP employees and using them to obtain trade secrets. In a statement released last year, SAP claimed Siebel had "engaged in a systematic effort to injure SAP's business and impede SAP's ability to compete with Siebel in the CRM marketplace". More than 20 executives have left SAP for Siebel, including Paul Wahl, former SAP America CEO, who was appointed president and COO at Siebel last May. Jeremy Coot resigned in March 1999 as SAP America President and became vice president of Siebel North America.