SAP buys Concur Technologies for $8.3B
Travel & Expense (T&E) management software corporation SAP SE, based in Germany, has arranged for its subsidiary SAP America, Inc. to acquire Washington-based T&E software provider Concur Technologies in an $8.3 billion agreement ($129 per share), GigaOm reports.
The deal is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the first of 2015. According to an SAP press release, Concur's board of directors unanimously approved the acquisition. Concur's announcement of the merger expressed optimism that consumers will benefit from the union:
"The combination of Concur and SAP will bring together the leading cloud-based Travel and Expense platform with the market leading enterprise application software company, and we expect this union to drive significant value for our customers."
The technology merger is likely a result of the fact that SaaS solutions are becoming ubiquitous in the business world, and while SAP has traditionally offered locally hosted T&E solutions, Concur's offerings are largely cloud-based. The SAP/Concur merger deal is one in a string of acquisitions "in which a giant software company is paying for a fast-growing 'cloud computing' rival," wrote Rolf Winkler of The Wall Street Journal.
According to SAP's press release, the acquisition will achieve a number of improvements, including boosting the company's mobile offerings and increasing its global reach, particularly expanding its T&E support of governments around the world. Post-merger, the corporation will provide cloud-based to support more than 50 million users, and will be the second most profitable company of its kind.
If you are looking to strike a similarly beneficial merger deal for your tech company, experienced advisors at an acquisition firm can help guide you through the complex process of buying or selling.