SAP to acquire Business Objects in friendly takeover

SAP will pay €42.00 per share, valuing the company at €4.8 billion – making it by far the largest acquisition in SAP’s 35 years and a radical (although not singular) departure from its strategy of organic development and growth. At first glance, it’s a curious purchase, given SAP’s long term involvement with business intelligence software, notably in its BW (business information warehouse) product, which has been central to the company’s flagship ERP, more or less for ever. But the pair say they will create “high-value solutions for process- and business-orientated professionals … designed to enable companies to strengthen decision processes, increase customer value and create sustainable competitive advantage through real-time, multi-dimensional business intelligence.” More to the point, perhaps, is SAP CEO Henning Kagermann’s statement: “The acquisition of Business Objects is in keeping with SAP’s stated strategy to double our addressable market by 2010 as announced in 2005… SAP will accelerate its growth in the business user segment, while complementing the company’s successful organic growth strategy.” That’s more like it: that and SAP’s faith in modern integration and portal technology to enable business-wide collaboration – including among those not privileged enough to have direct, real-time access to SAP data – and hence another wave of potential growth from business users. “With the delivery of the first business process platform, the rapid adoption of our enterprise SOA [services orientated architecture] platform, SAP NetWeaver; and the successful launch of the first complete on-demand business solution for mid-sized companies, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP can now take the opportunity to focus on the industry’s next high-growth opportunity, by accelerating and enhancing our efforts for the business user category,” says Kagermann. “We are highly committed to the next generation of applications serving business users,” he adds. “The combination of SAP and Business Objects in their respective domains will benefit customers, prospects, partners, employees and shareholders.” And Bernard Liautaud, chairman and founder of Business Objects, says: “The combination of Business Objects and SAP means that we can truly amplify the reach of business intelligence – from the C-suite to Main Street.” SAP says Business Objects will continue to operate as a stand-alone business as part of the SAP Group – with the clearly essential independence from databases and applications type and provider – while also getting SAP people, know-how and networks.