SAP open to merger or takeover...
Quote:
SAP open to merger or takeover: founder and major shareholder
Fri May 19, 4:06 AM ET
FRANKFURT (AFP) - SAP, the world's leading maker of business software, would be open to a merger or a takeover by companies such as IBM, Microsoft or Google, if the price were right, one of SAP's co-founders and biggest shareholders said.
If an interesting offer were made, his vote would be dependent on whether a deal made economic sense, SAP's co-founder and supervisory board chief Hasso Plattner told the Financial Times Deutschland in an interview.
As supervisory board chief, he had to act in the interests of the other shareholders, he added.
"If the shareholders are of the opinion that another sort of tie-up is better than independence, then that will happen," said Plattner, who currently owns 10.9 percent of SAP.
SAP's current market capitalisation is around 51.7 billion euros (66 billion dollars).
But the number of potential buyers was very small, Plattner said.
"There are only three potential buyers -- IBM, Microsoft and Google. I don't see any others."
And he added: "I don't want to start rumours. There are no negotiations underway. But I don't want to say that I dislike them so much that I can't imagine (a tie-up)."
SAP open to merger or takeover: founder and major shareholder
Fri May 19, 4:06 AM ET
FRANKFURT (AFP) - SAP, the world's leading maker of business software, would be open to a merger or a takeover by companies such as IBM, Microsoft or Google, if the price were right, one of SAP's co-founders and biggest shareholders said.
If an interesting offer were made, his vote would be dependent on whether a deal made economic sense, SAP's co-founder and supervisory board chief Hasso Plattner told the Financial Times Deutschland in an interview.
As supervisory board chief, he had to act in the interests of the other shareholders, he added.
"If the shareholders are of the opinion that another sort of tie-up is better than independence, then that will happen," said Plattner, who currently owns 10.9 percent of SAP.
SAP's current market capitalisation is around 51.7 billion euros (66 billion dollars).
But the number of potential buyers was very small, Plattner said.
"There are only three potential buyers -- IBM, Microsoft and Google. I don't see any others."
And he added: "I don't want to start rumours. There are no negotiations underway. But I don't want to say that I dislike them so much that I can't imagine (a tie-up)."
News is from yahoo... http://au.news.yahoo.com/060519/19/z133.html
And the companies site: http://www.sap.com/usa/index.epx
I found this article very interesting because if MS were to get a hold of them it would possibly be very bad for everyone (MS already thinks they rule the whole planet) but I was thinking what if Apple could buy SAP (I know that would take a miracle...) but having the worlds largest buisness software maker would help Apples image a lot!
But since I know that thats not possible (or in better words very unlikely) I hope that google or IBM wins this race (if there is a race) I believe this would be better in long term for everyone possibly even us Mac fans.
So what do you think about this??