SAP to Buy Sybase
On May 12, 2010 Larry Barrett, writing for Datamation in his article SAP Acquires Sybase for $5.8 Billion, reported that “Sybase (NYSE: SY) shares rocketed up $14.57 a share, or 35 percent, to $56.14 in the regular trading session before adding another $6.96 a share, or 13 percent, to $63.10 after the bell on news of the merger”. With its starting position sufficiently secured in the database software market against its chief competitor Oracle, it appears that SAP anticipates future gains in the out years.
SAP’s Co-CEO, Bill McDermott was quoted as saying,
“…SAP will dramatically expand its addressable market by making available its market-leading solutions to hundreds of millions of mobile users …”
SAP has broken with its time-honored approach of organic growth in its quest to overtake Oracle. Last time this happened was its $6.7 billion purchase of Business Objects at the end of 2007, (see December 21, 2007 post in this blog entitled SAP Merges with Business Objects).
Sybase will operate as a separate entity under the new name Sybase, an SAP Company. The existing product lines as well as the development units will remain as is and SAP will provide support for all.
A Special Note to My Readers: I have not posted an article in a while. On May 4th my mother passed away from a sudden and severe blood clot in her main artery in her thigh. I needed some time to make the proper arrangements and to collect my thoughts. I plan to restart my regular schedule shortly and provide more regular reports to you on the current developments in the software licensing industry.
