May 19, 2013
SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) is the world's leading provider in business software and is the top provider in 20 of the 25 industries that it serves. SAP makes software programs that increases or examines the productivity in specific parts of a company, such as customer relations, enterprise resource planning, accounting, human resources, and others. SAP's main revenue streams come from the licensing of business software, providing maintenance services, and consulting. Over 75% of revenues come from SAP's 32,000 enterprise customers.[1] SAP focuses on vertical industries, such as media, which helps provide growth as these industries expand. A potentially large area of growth could come in the relatively new services-oriented architecture (SOA), which enables the customers to link and connect its various applications. SAP expects its SOA, called NetWeaver, to be well received by its large installed customer base. Many of the industries SAP operates in are fragmented in terms of the software brands used. At the same time, there has been a trend towards consolidating software providers and that is expected to help SAP and Oracle as they are the two largest software companies.
As of December 31, 2009, the Company had more than 95,000 customers in over 120 countries.[2] As of December 31, 2009, SAP AG was the parent of 163 subsidiaries.[2] In July 2010, SAP AG completed the acquisition of Sybase, Inc., whereby Sheffield Acquisition Corp., a subsidiary of SAP AG was merged with and into Sybase, Inc., with Sybase, Inc. surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP America, Inc.[2] In September 2009, the Company acquired a 63.12% majority shareholding in SAF Simulation, Analysis and Forecasting AG (SAF), a global forecasting and replenishment software company operating in the retail and wholesale industries. In October 2009, the Company acquired 70.67% stake in SAF AG.[2]
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