German enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor SAP AG has folded e-procurement services company Emaro AG into its operations.
SAP acquired the portion of Emaro that it didn’t already own from Deutsche Bank AG, it announced Monday. “After purchasing Deutsche Bank’s 60 per cent share of Emaro last month, we have fully integrated the company into SAP. With Emaro employees now working at SAP, we have one more hosting solution,” said SAP spokesman Hilmar Schepp.
Emaro, located in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, with 30 employees, was launched in July 2000 as a joint venture between Deutsche Bank and SAP. Schepp declined to disclose any financial details of the latest deal.
Emaro is now part of SAP’s Application Hosting and Global Operation Services, a division overseen by Thomas Besthorn, managing director of SAP Hosting, the company said in a statement.
SAP’s hosting services include implementation hosting, application hosting, remote application management and hosted learning. This range will be enhanced by Emaro’s electronic purchasing services such as its electronic platform for the procurement of catalogue-based articles, and technical integration of catalogue- and travel-management systems, the Walldorf, Germany, company said.
The acquisition of Emaro is the latest step in SAP’s efforts to bring the development and marketing of e-procurement services in-house. In January, SAP ceased selling the e-procurement software of Commerce One Inc., in Pleasanton, California. Though the companies denied they were ending a partnership launched in June 2000, they did divide their e-procurement efforts.
Commerce One has since suffered financial difficulties, cutting its workforce by 400 people to about 700 employees. Commerce One 6.0, a suite of online procurement and sourcing applications is still expected to be launched next year to compete with offerings from SAP, webMethods Inc. of Fairfax, Virginia, and Requisite Technology Inc. of Westminster, Colorado.
