by Simon Quicke
7 October 2008
Warnings from SAP that its business took a hit in the third
quarter sent the vendors shares plummeting and indicated that most of the
confidence that had been washing around the high-end of the software market has
vanished.
The Business
Intelligence specialist saw shares slide 16% yesterday after it lowered its
estimates based on sales figures.
In a statement accompanying its Q3 preliminary figures its
CEO Henning Kagermann was clear about the impact of the downturn on its
business.
“The market developments of the past several weeks have been dramatic and
worrying to many businesses. These concerns triggered a very sudden and
unexpected drop in business activity at the end of the quarter,” he said.
He added that it had remained confident throughout most of the quarter but
the meltdown in the banking world in the last week had led to a more grim
outlook.
“Unfortunately, SAP was not immune from the economic and financial crisis
that has enveloped the markets in the second half of September, causing us to
report numbers below our expectations.”
Third quarter 2008 U.S. GAAP software revenues are expected to be between
€740 and €750 million which would be an increase of 5% compared to the same
period last year.
Kagermann said that despite the problems it still expected to grow and take
market share.
