Business software maker SAP AG has agreed to acquire U.S. portal software company, TopTier Software Inc. for US$400 million, SAP announced Friday.
The cash deal, which is to be finalized in the second quarter, will make TopTier a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP, the German company said in a statement.
TopTier reported revenue in 2000 of just $20 million, 20 times less than its purchase price. SAP, which already has a partnership agreement with TopTier, expects to take a one-time research and development charge of no more than $50 million related to the deal in its next quarterly report, the companies said.
“Excluding this one-time charge and the amortization of goodwill and other intangibles acquired, SAP expects the acquisition to have minimal impact on 2001 earnings per share,” SAP said.
SAP believes TopTier will be easily integrated into its mySAP Workplace product line. Furthermore, the TopTier acquisition will provide SAP with TopTier customers, including DaimlerChrysler AG and Hewlett-Packard Co., enabling the German company to compete with Oracle Corp. and Siebel Systems Inc. in the enterprise portal market, the companies said.
On Thursday, SAP reported revenue for the fiscal year 2000 of 6.27 billion euros (US$5.6 billion), an increase of 23 per cent over the 1999 figure. Net profit was up five per cent to 634 million euros.
Of 2000 revenue, 661 million euros came from SAP’s mySAP.com Internet-based software platform, a jump of 412 per cent for the year. SAP has been pinning its growth hopes on mySAP license revenue.
SAP AG, in Walldorf, Germany, can be reached at http://www.sap.de/. TopTier, in San Jose, Calif., can be contacted at http://www.toptier.com/.
