SAP chief seeks to quell takeover speculation

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

FRANKFURT (AFP) — SAP chairman Henning Kagermann has sought to quell speculation that the world's leading maker of business software was open to a merger or a takeover by companies such as IBM, Microsoft or Google.

Barely three weeks after one of SAP's original founders and current supervisory board chief, Hasso Plattner, suggested that the software giant could be a suitable takeover target, Kagermann insisted in an interview with the Financial Times that Plattner's comments had been misunderstood.

"These were single remarks made by someone who was in a good mood," the chief executive said. "Our customers want a strong, independent SAP."

Kagermann's remarks appeared to hint at some degree of tension between him and supervisory board chief Plattner, who owns...