So, at the end of the day, it’s the Germans at the fore. After all the talk about VC investment not performing in Europe and the poor performance of the tech sector in Europe, it was a pleasure seeing the acquisition of a US tech firm by a German.

Kudos SAP

It may be a tough integration but it is certainly a relevant one for the firm – both from the database perspective as well as from Sybase’s presence in mobile.

Q1 2009 SAP and Sybase set up a partnership to deliver the SAP business suite to the Blackberry, iPhone and other mobile handsets. Moreover, their device management system (the erstwhile Xcellent acquired in 2004) also enables the company to manage enterprise-wise mobility solutions.

SAP has paid $5.6 billion a 44% premium on the three month stock price, for Sybase. After deducting the $1 billion cash in hand that translates to a 3.9x revenue multiple and 28x earnings multiple.

The Company’s statement goes on to say ‘This acquisition falls right in line with our three pillar strategy of on-premise, on-demand, and on-device software’ – I understand the on-premise and on-device. But I wish I could believe in the on-demand.

We’ve been seeing SAP struggle with provisioning the ERP solution in a SAAS model for the SME segment. Almost a decade ago, I was part of the team attempting the launch of the Oracle SAAS based ERP solution in the Indian market. It certainly didn’t work then.

But I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing how SAP addresses the gap.