SAP in play?

Over the past few months, there's been a fall-off in M&A dealmaking. But that's not stopping traders.

According to a report from Reuters, there is some buzz that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) might buy SAP (NYSE: SAP). Hey, keep in mind that – several years ago – both companies talked about a combination.

On its face, it seems like a smart deal. SAP has a lucrative franchise in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space. It's a business that should last for a long time – despite the competitive threats, even from Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL).

However, SAP is currently in the process of closing its biggest acquisition – that is, the acquisition of Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ). So does it have time to do a mega deal with Microsoft?

Besides, I suspect there would be serious integration issues. No doubt, cross-border deals can be very complex. Just take a look at the Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) fiasco.

But as seen lately, the software space is consolidating rapidly. So, you really count anything out – even a transformative deal that would shake-up the industry.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.