WALLDORF, Germany April 2, 2001 TopTier, a provider of information portal software and integration products and current partner of SAP, is making plans to become a subsidiary of SAP. The e-business software company recently announced its plans to acquire TopTier by buying all of the company's outstanding shares for approximately $400 million in cash. The closing is expected to occur during the second quarter of 2001.
TopTier has been a partner of SAP since 1999, and its drag-and-relate technology is already available and integrated within the SAP enterprise portal offering, mySAP Workplace. After the acquisition, SAP will be able to use all of the TopTier technology features to further integrate heterogeneous applications beyond those of SAP.
AMR Research, in an article that came out on Friday, notes that the acquisition is an unprecedented move for SAP, which rarely buys companies for strategic value. But the article adds that SAP was likely motivated by TopTier's competitor appeal', saying, TopTier has deals with Baan and i2 Technologies among others. SAP competitors like Oracle and PeopleSoft are also heavily investing in portal strategies.
But whatever the reason, it looks like SAP is taking notice of the companies around them, and may join the B2B alliance frenzy of 2001.
