Hasso Plattner, of SAP is open to chatting to suitors for a possible merger or buyout saying : “There are only three potential buyers: IBM,Microsoft and Google of all companies. I don’t see anyone else. If shareholders think that a combination, and not independence, is better, then it will happen.”
Platter’s thoughts on IBM were: “I do not want to invent rumours because there are no talks. However, I do not want to say that I dislike IBM so much that I could not imagine such a scenario at all.” But the two companies have formed an agreement for IBM in the us to resell SAP to the small to medium sized market.
Microsoft: They did talk a couple of years ago but there would be EU competition issues there which could sour the party.
Google: nothing mentioned that would be a huge culture clash to manage but imagine having a SAP application that was flexible .If Google could change the mindset in SAP, having customer focused approach would work wonders.
There will be no dance with Larry (Oracle) though, he must be miffed.
The company that takes on SAP will need to have deep pockets Sap’s turnover is $64bn plus they are leading the field in organic sales with plans to double their stock price by 2010
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