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Former Siebel CEO Lawrie lands at ValueAct

Michael Lawrie joins the investment firm as a partner, will assist in ValueAct's hostile bid for data storage company Acxiom.

Dawn Kawamoto Former Staff writer, CNET News
Dawn Kawamoto covered enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News.
Dawn Kawamoto
2 min read
Former Siebel CEO Michael Lawrie has joined investment firm ValueAct Capital as a partner, the investment company said Thursday.

Lawrie, who abruptly resigned from Siebel in April after spending less than a year at the company, is joining a private investment firm that was an investor in Siebel earlier this year.

Michael Lawrie
Michael Lawrie

"We got to know Mike while he was CEO at Siebel Systems, and we were investors there earlier this year," Jeff Ubben, ValueAct co-founder and managing partner, said in a statement.

During the same month that Lawrie resigned from Siebel, the troubled software company began buyout discussions with a group of private investors from two investment partnerships, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those talks lasted through May, before the acquisition group concluded that it could not offer a satisfactory price for Siebel.

Currently engaged in a $2 billion hostile takeover bid for data storage company Acxiom, ValueAct indicated that Lawrie would play a "significant leadership" role at the company if it is ultimately acquired.

Should the hostile bid go through, ValueAct would assign two other executives to join Lawrie at Acxiom, ValueAct said in its statement about Lawrie's partnership appointment.

Lawrie, a former IBM sales and marketing executive, will serve as one of seven partners at ValueAct and will be based in its Boston office.

"Mike has successfully run sales forces, divisions and whole companies--both domestically and internationally--and brings the perspective of a CEO that can only be positive for our investment process and relationships with portfolio companies," Ubben said.

ValueAct manages approximately $3 billion in assets from its Boston and San Francisco offices.

"What impresses me most about the firm is the broad spectrum of strategies and tools available to the investment team, with the only mandate being to do what is best for the business," Lawrie said in a statement.

After Lawrie's departure from Siebel, the enterprise software maker eventually signed a $5.8 billion deal to be acquired by Oracle.