SAP AG - History

History

SAP was founded in June 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development") by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther). The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").

As part of the Xerox exit strategy from the computer industry, Xerox retained IBM to migrate their business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM acquired the SDS/SAPE software, reportedly for a contract credit of $80,000. The SAPE software was given by IBM to the founding ex-IBM employees in exchange for founding stock provided to IBM, reportedly 8%. Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was SAP's first ever customer in 1972.

In 1973 the SAP R/1 solution was launched. Six years later, in 1979, SAP launched SAP R/2. In 1981, SAP brought a re-designed product to market. However, SAP R/2 did not improve until the period between 1985 and 1990. SAP developed and released several versions of R/3 in 1992 through 1995. By the mid-1990s, SAP followed the trend from mainframe computing to client/server architectures. The development of SAP’s internet strategy with mySAP.com redesigned the concept of business processes (integration via Internet). SAP was awarded Industry Week’s Best Managed Companies in 1999.

In 1976, "SAP GmbH" was founded, and moved its headquarters the following year to Walldorf. SAP AG became the company's official name after the 2005 annual general meeting. AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft (corporation).

In August 1988, SAP GmbH transferred into SAP AG (a corporation by German law), and public trading started 4 November. Shares are listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges.

In 1995, SAP was included in the German stock index DAX. On 22 September 2003, SAP was included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50.

In November, 2010, SAP lost a $1.3 billion intellectual property lawsuit (related to the actions of the SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow) to Oracle Corporation – cited as the largest software piracy judgment in history. SAP filed post-trial motions to lower the damage awarded to Oracle and stated it may also file an appeal. On 9 September 2011, the verdict was overturned by Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, who called the penalty "grossly excessive."

In 2008, SAP acquired Business Objects, a business intelligence company and added its products to its portfolio. In 2010, SAP acquired Sybase in a major acquisition move. Sybase being the largest business software and service provider specializing in information management and mobile data use.

In December 2011, SAP AG agreed to buy SuccessFactors Inc. for $3.4 billion in cash or 52 percent more than the share closing price on 2 December 2011. With the acquisition, SAP AG will become more competitive with Oracle Corp. in the Cloud computing market.

In May 2012, SAP AG announced to acquire the Sunnyvale, California-based supply chain network operator Ariba Inc. for an estimated $4.3 billion dollars. SAP said it will offer $45 a share. The acquisition is assumed to be completed in the third quarter 2012, subject to approval by Ariba shareholders and regulators.