SAP, with Ariba buy, eyes India acquisitions

German enterprise software maker SAP, which recently acquired e-commerce software provider Ariba for $4.3 bn, would leverage the acquisition for its India business, a top company official said. The company is also eyeing acquisitions in India to expand its marketshare in the subcontinent.

German enterprise software maker SAP, which recently acquired e-commerce software provider Ariba for $4.3 bn, would leverage the acquisition for its India business, a top company official said. The company is also eyeing acquisitions in India to expand its marketshare in the subcontinent.

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“We are still the process of acquiring Ariba but broadly (speaking) the acquisition will impact India,” said Steve Lucas, global executive vice-president, database and technology, SAP.

SAP would try and leverage the acquisition for the still nascent but fast-growing cloud based e-commerce segment in India.

According to IDC researcher, web-based cloud applications are expected to grow five times globally compared to the sales of desktop programmes. And SAP plans to generate its sales from such systems within the next five years.

The company is also exploring buyout opportunities in India including that in application space for its gaming consol. Lucas, however, did not specify the size of the acquisitions.

“We have the general kind of database offering (for now) and we have to both build and or acquire more disaster recovery and back-up management tools all of that gets wrapped around the database.

“We have a plan to be the number 2 player by revenue size in India by 2013,” said a company executive on the condition of anonymity.