Business Intelligence is, very much like Enterprise Content Management, a field that is consolidating very rapidly. Business Objects seems the ‘victim’ in this process …
… SAP plans to spend $6.8 billion to buy software maker Business Objects, the companies said Sunday.
The deal comes months after a SAP competitor – Redwood City-based Oracle – picked up a business smaller than Business Objects with a similar mission.
SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, with offices in the Bay Area, said the board of Business Objects, based in Paris, with offices in San Jose, expects to recommend the offer to its shareholders soon.
Under the terms of the agreement, SAP will pay 42 euros ($59.35) a share in cash.
SAP develops software that businesses use for payroll and supply-chain management. Business Objects creates software that helps businesses analyze their sales data.
The move comes after rival Oracle said in March that it would buy the financial services and business software company Hyperion for $3.3 billion, as both Oracle and SAP attempt to grow their presence in the mid-size-company market.
But Henning Kagermann, SAP’s chief executive, and Business Objects officials said this deal was different because their two companies don’t have the same amount of overlap as Oracle and Hyperion.
Business Objects would operate as a stand-alone business within SAP. …
Source: Mercury News
