I suspect there are at least two reasons for the rising speculation that Oracle may have plans for Siebel Analytics:
- The fact that Siebel Analytics had been a success story for Siebel, and in the last year contributed upwards of 20% of Siebel's total license revenue. Siebel Analytics had also been rated by Gartner (link to Gartner site) as having the most complete vision (completeness of vision and ability to execute being the two dimensions on which Gartner rates vendors in its Magic Quadrants). I don't have any publicly shareable links to these magic quadrants, but you may be able to find something on Siebel's web site (http://www.siebel.com/)
A little searching on the net (ok, all I did was 'Google' around) shows that Siebel bought a company called nQuire in Oct 2001, that had been founded by Larry Barbetta in late 1999. This acquisition brought to Siebel nQuire's integrated zero footprint web client and an analytics server. This acquisition is what Siebel built upon and is now Siebel Business Analytics version 7.8 (released late last year). Larry B is now SVP and GM of Siebel Business Analytics. - Public statements from Oracle executive management advertising Siebel's BI applications as "hidden jewels" (link to article).