SAP announces it will acquire Ariba for $4.3 billion

Blog Post | 22 May 2012

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Author: Susie West

Have you heard the news? The favoured child of the shared services world, SAP, has just announced it will be buying cloud-based business commerce network Ariba.

The buy-price is stated to be $4.3bn and SAP's subsidiary, SAP America Inc., is offering $45 per share for the platform.

The plan is to close the deal during the third quarter.

Accordiong to techcrunch.com, the deal will be funded from SAP's free cash and a EUR2.4bn term loan facility.

SAP says the acquisition will combine Ariba's successful buyer-seller collaboration network with SAP's own customer base and solutions in order to create new models for business-to-business collaboration in the cloud.

Sunnyvale-based Ariba has approximately 2,600 employees, $444m in total revenue, and experienced 38.5 percent annual growth in 2011. Its business network recorded 62 percent organic growth in the same period.

This is another stake in the ground from SAP. Following on from the Crossgate acquisition this year, this move represents a deepening intent to claim the lion's share of the purchase to pay market.

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