Saturday, December 29, 2007

What is SAP?

SAP AG (ISIN: DE0007164600, FWB: SAP, NYSE: SAP) is the largest European software enterprise and the third largest in the world, with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.

History

SAP was founded in 1972 as Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung by five former IBM engineers in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg (Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther).[1] The acronym was later changed to stand for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung ("Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing").

In 1976 "SAP GmbH" was founded and the following year it moved headquarters to Walldorf. SAP AG became the company's official name after the 2005 annual general meeting (AG is short for Aktiengesellschaft).

In August 1988, SAP GmbH transferred into SAP AG (a corporation by German law), and public trading started November 4. Shares are listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchange.[1]

The founding members Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Klaus E. Tschira and Hans-Werner Hector form the executive board. In 1995, SAP is included in the German stock index DAX. On September 22, 2003, SAP is included in the Dow Jones STOXX 50.[2] In 1991, Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann joins the board; Dr. Peter Zencke becomes a board member in 1993.[3] Claus Heinrich,[4] and Gerhard Oswald [5] have been members of the SAP Executive Board since 1996. Two years later, in 1998 the first change at the helm takes place. Dietmar Hopp and Klaus Tschira move to the supervisory board, Dietmar Hopp is appointed Chairman of the supervisory board. Henning Kagermann is appointed as Co-Chairman and CEO of SAP next to Hasso Plattner. Werner Brandt joined SAP in 2001 as member of the SAP Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer since 2001.[6] Léo Apotheker has been a member of the SAP Executive Board and president of Global Customer Solutions & Operations since 2002 and is appointed Deputy CEO in 2007.

Henning Kagermann became the sole CEO of SAP in 2003.[7] In February 2007 his contract was extended until 2009. After continuous disputes over the responsibility of the development organization, Shai Agassi, a member of the executive board who had been named as a potential successor to Kagermann, left the organization

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