Any ideas how this will affect the relationship between BO and Infor/Baan. My bet is that we will be near the end of the list for upgrades, support, etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Business software maker SAP (SAP, news, msgs) is buying Business Objects (BOBJ, news, msgs) in a deal worth $6.8 billion.

"The combination of SAP and Business Objects in their respective domains will benefit customers, prospects, partners, employees and shareholders," SAP Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said in a press release. "At SAP, we are excited about the prospect of having Business Objects join the SAP Group."

The purchase, SAP's biggest since it was founded in 1972, is a change for the company, one analyst said. It's "a dramatic shift in strategy," Thomas Hofmann, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, told Bloomberg News. "They're really moving toward the direction of Oracle (ORCL, news, msgs) and maybe that's because they're feeling Oracle is coming closer."

SAP's past strategy had been to foster organic growth, while rival Oracle has spent billions in acquisitions over the past few years. Shares of Business Objects jumped $7.52, or 15%, to $57.79 in midday trading; SAP shares were down $2.96, or 5%, to $56.27. Shares of Oracle were up 20 cents to $22.38.

Business Objects, which is based in Paris, will continue to operate as a stand-alone company. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, if Business Objects shareholders approve it and regulators clear it

Hi,

According to one information we have from BO, they will not be updating Baan Solution Kits for newer Porting Sets. As far as ERPLN is concerned there is no way one could use crystal anymore with newer installations. I can only assume that the strategic partnership is now truely over. I think that was also the reason for going along with the open source (read feature poor) BIRT in Porting set 8.4.

__________________
May the force be with you!

It was my understanding that they stopped supporting solution kits long before the take over offer. Of course I could be wrong.

__________________
Mark

GO Cards!
My latest mantra - make sure you have latest stpapi patches and the latest session object. If on LN then please explore the option of using DAL2 functionality.

Shared Solutions for Baan systems provided free by Baan Board.
Play the Google game and help Baanboard get better rankings. Do your part. Click here to find how.