
Please try another search
By Supantha Mukherjee and Nadine Schimroszik
STOCKHOLM/BERLIN (Reuters) -SAP said on Thursday it has agreed to buy a majority stake in privately held U.S. fintech firm Taulia as the German business software group seeks to expand its presence in supply-chain financing and working capital management.
SAP, which makes software for managing business processes and gets much of its revenue in recurring form, said it was also looking at opportunities in the 'metaverse' - virtual online worlds where people can work, play and socialize.
"We have big partners reaching out to us asking for partnerships in the metaverse because of a lot of interesting B2B (business-to-business) scenarios - think about learning, commerce and a few other business scenarios," Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein said in an interview.
The metaverse has become the new tech buzzword with companies such as Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) betting it will be the successor to the mobile internet.
"Soon you will see an announcement about what SAP will do around metaverse," Klein said.
SAP, which confirmed its preliminary fourth-quarter results on Thursday, forecast 2022 cloud revenue of 11.55-11.85 billion euros ($12.95-13.27 billion), up from 9.42 billion in 2021, as customers shift IT operations to the cloud.
The deal with Taulia could help SAP win more business with customers by providing supply-chain financing.
Taulia works with financial institutions to allow suppliers that use its platform to receive early payments on their delivered goods and services, and the market has significantly increased due to the pandemic disrupting supply chains.
While SAP did not disclose the deal price, Klein said it was less than $1 billion. Taulia had raised more than $200 million from the likes of Trinity Ventures, Questmark Partner and Lakestar.
SAP is open to more acquisitions if they fit its portfolio, Klein added.
SAP's former CEO Léo Apotheker is an independent director at Taulia, and the companies have common customers such as Airbus, Nissan (OTC:NSANY) and AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN).
($1 = 0.8916 euros)
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.