SAP buys Concur

SAP said Friday it would buy Concur Technologies for about $7.36 billion (6.5 billion euros), or $129 per share of the US-based software maker. That's a premium of 19.7 percent to Concur's closing price on Thursday.

SAP, which is based in Walldorf, Germany, said it expected the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015, assuming Concur shareholders approve the sale.

The deal is the largest takeover so far by the German business software giant, and comes a few months after Bill McDermott became the firm's sole chief executive officer.

In a statement McDermott described the acquisition as a "bold move."

"With Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur, SAP is the undisputed business network company. We are redefining how businesses conduct commerce across goods and services, contingent workforces, travel and entertainment," he said.

Concur, which is based in Bellevue, Washington, has 25 million users in 150 countries. Its open platform connects the "corporate travel ecosystem", such as airlines, hotels and car rental companies, in the computing cloud. Its software can book flights and submit or approve expenses on the Internet or mobile devices. The company's revenue rose 29 percent to $178.4 million in its latest fiscal quarter.

CEO Steve Singh welcomed the tie-up with SAP in a statement: "We have always been focused on making solutions for real customer problems, and with SAP we have a great opportunity to advance that mission."

SAP said it would fund the purchase from a credit line of about 7 billion euros.

Investors, however, are less convinced of the acquisition. SAP shares dropped 3 percent to 58.10 euros per share in midday trading Friday. Stock market analysts said SAP had paid too much for the US company.

uhe/nz (dpa, AP, AFP)