SAP to acquire Business Objects for €4.8 billion
ConvergenceAsia staff
09/10/2007

SAP and Business Objects have announced that the companies have reached an agreement that will bring together two of the information technology industry’s leaders.

Under the terms and conditions of the tender offer agreement, SAP will make a cash offer of € 42.00 per ordinary share and for American Depositary Shares (ADS) at the US$ equivalent based on the EUR/US$ exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers. The transaction volume taking into account the transaction costs will be slightly above €4.8 billion.

The Business Objects board of directors has approved the tender offer agreement between the two companies and anticipates recommending the offer to its shareholders subject to fulfillment of certain regulatory requirements.

Together, SAP and Business Objects intend to offer high-value solutions for process- and business-oriented professionals. The solutions will be designed to enable companies to strengthen decision processes, increase customer value and create sustainable competitive advantage through real-time, multi-dimensional business intelligence.

“The acquisition of Business Objects is in keeping with SAP’s stated strategy to double our addressable market by 2010 as announced in 2005,” said Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP.

“SAP will accelerate its growth in the Business User segment, while complementing the company’s successful organic growth strategy. With the delivery of the first business process platform; the rapid adoption of our enterprise SOA platform, SAP NetWeaver; and the successful launch of the first complete on-demand business solution for midsized 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,” Kagermann said.

SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software with more than 41,200 customers in more than 120 countries running SAP applications. Headquartered in Paris, France Business Objects is the world’s leading BI software company with solutions spanning the information discovery and delivery, information management, analysis and performance management categories for more than 44,000 customers around the globe.

SAP and Business Objects plan to exploit additional revenue opportunities and leverage potential synergies. Additional details regarding specific product, go-to-market and other executional details will be provided after the transaction is complete. Neither company intends to undertake significant restructuring as a result of the transaction.

The closing of the transaction is expected within the first quarter of 2008.

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