Saturday, November 20, 2004

Barron's Online - SAP's Moment

Barron's Online - SAP's Moment: "SAP, with annual sales of nearly $10 billion, now accounts for a stunning 54% of the worldwide revenues of the top five players in business software -- and that figure looks headed to 70%. SAP has been grabbing market share hand over fist for the past year as two of its key rivals, Oracle and PeopleSoft, prolong their bitter takeover battle. And in dramatic defiance of critics, the company has positioned itself to thrive in a new era of Web-based computing, where corporate workers can exchange data across departmental, physical and geographical barriers."

... (from the second page of the article:)

"While SAP and Microsoft haven't gotten married, they appear to have moved in together, says analyst Bill Whyman of the Washington-based research firm Precursor Group. The two -- which long have collaborated in addition to competing -- have tightened their business ties and increased their technical and product integrations, Whyman says. More than 60% of new SAP installations are on Microsoft's Windows operating system, and SAP supports certain Microsoft programming tools for developing next-generation applications. That adds up to some of the benefits of a merger without the disruption."

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