Judge dismisses Siebel shareholder suit

Siebel Systems said Tuesday that a federal court dismissed a shareholder lawsuit that accused the company of inflating performance levels for some of its products.

U.S. Judge Charles Breyer last month "dismissed with prejudice" the class action lawsuit filed in March 2004 against the software company and some of its executives, Siebel said.

The suit alleged that Siebel executives overstated the performance and customer satisfaction claims of Siebel 7 and some of the company's other software products, which help manage customer relationships. The plaintiffs claimed that this resulted in artificially boosting the company's stock price.

But the court "rejected the plaintiff's arguments in their entirety," Siebel said in a statement, adding that it will now "seek to recover its costs" from the plaintiffs.

This is the second court victory Siebel has won in the past four months. Last September, a federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that had accused the San Mateo, Calif.-based company of violating corporate disclosure regulations.