Acquisition worth billions - SAP takes over CallidusCloud

With the acquisition of Callidus, SAP plans to create the most comprehensive solution offering in the area of customer experience management and thus clearly position itself among the competition.

By combining the CallidusCloud "Lead to Money" suite and the SAP "Customer Engagement" suite, SAP aims to create a leading solution portfolio for customer relationship management (CRM).

CallidusCloud's board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction. The purchase price of $36 per share represents an enterprise value of approximately $2.4 billion.

SAP is financing the purchase from cash and cash equivalents and a term acquisition loan. The transaction is subject to the approval of CallidusCloud shareholders, clearance by the relevant antitrust authorities and the granting of other approvals customary in this context.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. "SAP is connecting the back office with the front office at a pivotal moment," said Bill McDermott, SAP chief executive officer.

"Because we are in the middle of a growth revolution driven by consumers. Our customers are currently completely repositioning themselves in sales, service, marketing and retail.

CallidusCloud fits perfectly with SAP's innovation strategy that is reshaping the front office. SAP is giving CallidusCloud the global footprint to accelerate its already impressive growth.

Together, the two companies will be even stronger and can improve business operations and people's lives."

The CallidusCloud solutions will remain open for integration into third-party installations in the future. After completion of the transaction, all CallidusCloud products will be consolidated within the Hybris business unit and thus as part of the SAP Cloud Business Group.