Weekend. And before the final eventful last week of the year – amongst others the ‘
6th National IT-Summit’ – starts, SAP announces the acquisition of
SuccessFactors. Many things have been written and analyzed so far. Is the takeover price justified? Will this acquisition of a specialist in human capital management software really create a
cloud powerhouse, such as Bill McDermott, Co-CEO with SAP, stated? Up to me, these and other aspects are explained and clarified on a
zdnet blog page as well as the mentioned references.
To sum it up: so far, SAP has not been that successful in a new environment – at least not as expected or anticipated. The consequence – SAP takes over a so-called market leader in this new environment and bundles the activities in a separate entity that is supposed to be led to success from California. The founder of the acquired company is recommended to become a member of the managing board of SAP and raises great hopes.Memories come alive and I felt sent back 10 years ago: the new market environment were the ‘
portals’, the acquired company by SAP was TopTier Software – which later became
SAP Portals and operated in California initially – and the entrepreneur who became a member of the board was
Shai Agassi…
Can these two acquisitions be compared 1:1? Well, following a witticism of Franz Beckenbauer – ‘The Swedish are no Brazilians’ – it also can be stated: A Danish is no Israeli. In addition, the number of employees and customers as well as the turnover of the acquired companies and the takeover price are different. Nonetheless, some natural laws are still valid: an acquisition implicates restructuring measures – and this costs, however, time. In addition, a corporation such as SAP as well as the prevalent universal laws distinguish from the ‘free’ entrepreneurship. And regarding a strategy of a future cloud product portfolio can only be speculated at this time.
So? Up to me, this take over demonstrates that SAP intends – as always – to play in the major league. For customers the acquisition obviously stands primarily for additional options to their hands, but for answers regarding a consolidated product strategy – naturally – has to be waited for. And for SAP? Well, I hope for the company that is has learned one or two things from its history…
