It must be nice to be a tech billionaire. Look at Hasso Plattner, a co-founder and supervisory board chief at the German software powerhouse, SAP.
While the typical US software billionaire would not speculate on buyers for their own company, that's not the case with Plattner. In fact, he named the three possible buyers for his company: IBM, Microsoft and Google.
Of course, IBM and Microsoft make a lot of sense. Both companies have a large corporate business. For example, two years ago, both Microsoft and SAP talked about a deal. The problem, though, was the antitrust mess.
But Google? Well, maybe.
But isn't Google mostly a consumer company? That's true. However, the company has a global Web services platform that could be leveraged into the corporate market. In fact, Google is already moving aggressively into corporate search. Might it eventually provide services like ERP?
Over the years, SAP has built a strong franchise in the corporate market. And the company grows while its competitors continue to struggle.
Perhaps SAP is not so much scarred about Oracle and other traditional software players. Rather, maybe what "keeps Plattner up at night" is really Google?
Links:
Financial Times - SAP boss names three potential US buyers
Reuters - SAP co-founder sees only 3 potential buyers -paper
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-19-2006 @ 3:39PM
ken said...
My company started using SAP 2 years ago. It is the worst purchasing/time management tool I have seen in my career. Hershey booted them for a reason. They are lucky anybody would be interested in buying them.
6-09-2006 @ 1:15PM
SteveRene11 said...
Google is in a literal war between it's rivals and the Justice Dept - WHY? - Because they seem to be doing better than others competing with them had expected - for the same market share. MicroSoft had also experienced the same treatment in past years for some of the same reasons.
I guess when people in general are more envious of good companies / people just trying to do the right thing they do sometimes get a little jealous of anothers success?
Will we learn that by working together we CAN overcome all odds - against all odds - in a global marketplace.
SR11
http//FathersWhoCare.blogspot.com
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