SAP acquires Business Objects for £3.3 billion

SAP announced it is to acquire business intelligence (BI) software vendor, Business Objects for about €4.8 billion (£3.32 billion).

SAP said the companies will continue to operate as separate entities, but the acquisition is part of its strategy to double its addressable market by 2010.

With little overlap between the two companies' offerings, the German enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor said it would look to offer the both companies' customers BI products with an enterprise-wide scope along with embedded analytics in transactional applications.

In addition, it said the companies' channel and partner ecosystems would be able to take advantage of Business Objects' business process platform to manage information across SAP and non-SAP environments.

Henning Kagermann, SAP chief executive said: "We are highly committed to the next generation of applications serving business user."

Bernard Liautaud, chairman and founder of Business Objects said: "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."

The companies said additional details would be available about how they would look to exploit the additional revenue opportunities after the acquisition is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2008, subject to regulatory approval.

SAP agreed to buy Business Objects with a cash offer of €42 (£28.10) per ordinary share a 20 per cent premium over its Friday night closing price of €35 on the Euronext stock exchange. It will make equivalent payments in the US where Business Objects has the second of its dual headquarters.

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