SAP Merges with Business Objects
SAP acquired business intelligence (“BI”) software developer, Business Objects, for $6.7 billion. This is the latest of acquisitions in the BI space. First there was Oracle’s purchase of Hyperion for $3.3 billion. This was countered by Business Objects own $300 million purchase of Cartesis S.A. Business Objects’ software provides the means for companies to analyze their competitors decisions as well as their own.
SAP’s CEO, Henning Kagermann, emphasized during a press conference that the value added to its customers will come through its real-time BI which will strengthen the decision process.
Ovum Research's David Bradshaw and Helena Schwenk commented:
"Another factor is the business growth that SAP can get from the combination. Large suppliers are attracting an ever-larger share of customer spend, as customers try to reduce the number of suppliers to bring some order to their IT buying. In some accounts, the purchase might turn SAP from being an 'also ran' into a strategic supplier."
In addition, they noted, the acquisition "will bring both data extraction capabilities and market-leading front-end query and reporting tools, complementing parts of the NetWeaver BI stack," referring to SAP's cornerstone platform that it recently opened up to developers.
To read the full details of the merger read Larry Barrett's article in Internetnews.com.
