Wollrab

MEMORANDUM **

We affirm the district court’s dismissal of Appellant’s securities fraud class action complaint against Siebel Systems, Inc. (“Siebel”) for failure to satisfy the heightened pleading requirements of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

Even if Siebel’s statements about the Siebel 7 software were more than mere puffery, Appellant did not plead sufficient facts to give rise to a strong inference that Siebel knew of problems with the Siebel 7 at the time that the company was touting the product. See Ronconi v. Larkin, 253 F.3d 423, 432 (9th Cir.2001) (“Honest optimism followed by disappointment is not the same as lying or misleading with deliberate recklessness.”)

In addition, even assuming Siebel did intentionally “push” some deals into the first quarter of 2002, its results for that quarter were not misleading because Siebel warned that its January sales were unusually strong and not likely to be repeated, thus negating any impact of the “revenue cushioning” Siebel was allegedly trying to accomplish. See In re Vantive Corp. Sec. Litig., 283 F.3d 1079, 1085 (9th Cir.2002). Nor were Siebel’s statements that the quarter would be “as challenging” as the first…