SAP to Acquire Business Objects in Friendly Takeover
(October 7, 2007)
Business Objects to Operate Stand-Alone; Companies to Share Executives, Resources
The two companies announced that Business Objects will operate as a stand-alone business as part of the SAP Group. Business Objects customers will continue to benefit from open, broad and integrated business intelligence solutions – independent of databases and applications – while also gaining the advantage of application alignment for business analytics. Business Objects will significantly enhance its Business Intelligence portfolio scope and capacity with SAP people, know-how and networks.
SAP said that the expertise and solutions from Business Objects would be complimentary to offerings SAP already provides for Business Users – including, for example, category leadership in Governance, Risk and Compliance; business intelligence in the SAP platform; as well as corporate performance management capabilities – including those recently added through tuck-in acquisitions from OutlookSoft and Pilot Software.
When the transaction is complete, John Schwarz will continue as the CEO of the Business Objects entity and is expected to become a member of the SAP Executive Board. Doug Merritt, Corporate Officer, Business User, SAP, will then join the Business Objects entity and report to John Schwarz. Subject to the closing, SAP’s Supervisory Board intends to elect Business Object founder Bernard Liautaud to the SAP Supervisory board at the company’s next shareholders meeting. Until that time, Liautaud will have an advisory role to Henning Kagermann on aspects of strategy and integration.
(October 7, 2007)
Business Objects to Operate Stand-Alone; Companies to Share Executives, Resources
The two companies announced that Business Objects will operate as a stand-alone business as part of the SAP Group. Business Objects customers will continue to benefit from open, broad and integrated business intelligence solutions – independent of databases and applications – while also gaining the advantage of application alignment for business analytics. Business Objects will significantly enhance its Business Intelligence portfolio scope and capacity with SAP people, know-how and networks.
SAP said that the expertise and solutions from Business Objects would be complimentary to offerings SAP already provides for Business Users – including, for example, category leadership in Governance, Risk and Compliance; business intelligence in the SAP platform; as well as corporate performance management capabilities – including those recently added through tuck-in acquisitions from OutlookSoft and Pilot Software.
When the transaction is complete, John Schwarz will continue as the CEO of the Business Objects entity and is expected to become a member of the SAP Executive Board. Doug Merritt, Corporate Officer, Business User, SAP, will then join the Business Objects entity and report to John Schwarz. Subject to the closing, SAP’s Supervisory Board intends to elect Business Object founder Bernard Liautaud to the SAP Supervisory board at the company’s next shareholders meeting. Until that time, Liautaud will have an advisory role to Henning Kagermann on aspects of strategy and integration.