SAP’s $8.3 Billion Buys Travel Expenses Software Maker Concur
German enterprise application software giant SAP said it will buy travel expense management developer Concur Technologies (CNQR) for some $8.3 billion, which equates to $129 a share or a 20 percent bump over Concur’s Sept. 18 $107.80 closing price.
German enterprise application software giant SAP said it will buy travel expense management developer Concur Technologies (CNQR) for some $8.3 billion, which equates to $129 a share or a 20 percent bump over Concur’s Sept. 18 $107.80 closing price.
The 21-year old Concur, which became publicly held in 1998, recorded $546 million in sales last year and is on course to post $700 million in revenue this year, officials said. Concur provides services to more than 23,000 companies and has 25 million active users in 150 countries. Credit card company American Express owns a 13.5 percent interest in Concur.
“We have always been focused on making solutions for real customer problems, and with SAP we have a great opportunity to advance that mission,” said Steve Singh, Concur chief executive.
For SAP, the Concur deal follows a $4.3 billion acquisition of Ariba in 2012 and another deal to buy Fieldglass this past March. Ariba, a B2B cloud-based commerce platform, and Fieldglass, a cloud-based vendor management systems provider, along with Concur flesh out SAP’s business network portfolio, said Bill McDermott, SAP chief executive.
“The acquisition of Concur is consistent with our relentless focus on the business network,” he said. “With Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur, SAP is the undisputed business network company,” said McDermott. “We are redefining how businesses conduct commerce across goods and services, contingent workforces, travel and entertainment.”
From SAP’s perspective, here are some high points of the deal:
- Concur will expand SAP’s business network to reach into the $1.2 trillion corporate travel market.
- Concur has developed an open platform to connect the corporate travel ecosystem, such as airlines, hotels and car rental companies in new and innovative ways.
- The majority of SAP customers do not run Concur, presenting an opportunity to scale as part of the SAP franchise. Only 30 percent of Concur customers currently run SAP, presenting an opportunity to introduce SAP innovations to the Concur install base.
- In June 2012, Concur was awarded a 15-year contract to supply T&E software to multiple federal agencies. SAP, with government customers numbering in the tens-of-thousands, intends to expand this relationship across the globe with other governments and agencies.
- In the small and medium business space, Concur solutions will complement the new SAP Business One Cloud solution powered by SAP HANA to offer a compelling suite of solutions for businesses of all sizes.
The transaction is expected to close as soon as Q4 2014 or in Q1 2015. Concur will operate under the SAP umbrella and report to McDermott.
