SAP to Acquire Business-to-Business Networking Provider Crossgate

WALLDORF, Germany, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding to its portfolio of solutions that create rapid value for customers worldwide, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced its intent to acquire business-to-business (B2B) integration provider Crossgate. A leading provider of hosted B2B integration services, Crossgate enables companies to fully integrate and network with trading partners, clients and suppliers, allowing electronic data exchange with any business partner regardless of their technical capability. As a result of this acquisition, SAP will enable networking at the enterprise level, providing an easy way for trading partners to collaborate, share data and automate processes that link customers and suppliers for streamlined B2B e-commerce.

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Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Crossgate helps more than 40,000 business partners across multiple industries to securely exchange important documents and data by connecting companies with their trading partners for faster, more efficient B2B e-commerce. The acquisition of Crossgate follows SAP's strategy to complement existing applications and solutions with smart purchases that offer innovative technologies and capabilities while maintaining its successful organic growth track record.

Crossgate helps companies connect with any trading partner by joining the network once and linking with prebuilt business partner profiles. This is a full-service alternative, which eliminates the need for costly point-to-point integration. It lowers costs and enables further partner participation in B2B initiatives. Additionally, Crossgate's e-invoicing services offer an innovative and secure solution covering the entire process of inbound and outbound invoices, including signatures, compliance monitoring, integrated with customers' backend systems and finance processes.

SAP and Crossgate have a proven history of partnership as part of the SAP ecosystem, and in October 2008 Crossgate received an investment from SAP. Soon after, the partnership was furthered by entering into a global reseller agreement that allowed SAP to offer its customers Crossgate's B2B Content Engine as an SAP solution extension under the product name SAP® Information Interchange application by Crossgate. Most recently, SAP agreed to resell and market the SAP® E-Invoicing for Compliance application by Crossgate, which allows companies to send and receive digitally signed, compliant PDFs or EDI invoices electronically.

"Companies live in an evolving global network of customers and partners, and technology from Crossgate allows them to interact in new ways at the enterprise level the same way that social networking has transformed the way people interact as individuals," said Peter Maier, general manager, head of Line of Business Solutions, SAP AG.  "By acquiring Crossgate's highly differentiated solution, we help our customers extend their end-to-end business processes running on SAP to their customers and partners. As a result, thousands of SAP customers will join the network to exchange information easier, execute transactions faster and collaborate better."

"Crossgate is extremely excited that SAP, our long-term partner, has acquired our company and solutions," said Stefan Tittel, CEO and founder, Crossgate. "With combined social network paradigms and service extensions of business applications, SAP and Crossgate now have the potential to change the face of business networks and deliver a new level of collaboration to SAP customers and their business network partners. Our executive management team is excited about the possibility of bringing the Crossgate mission to the next level together with SAP. Our customers will experience business networking that is simple, compelling and efficient."

The acquisition is subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities. SAP will provide additional details about future plans after the acquisition of Crossgate is completed, which the company anticipates will occur by November 1, 2011. Terms and purchase price of this acquisition are not publicly disclosed.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 172,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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SOURCE SAP AG