SAP Makes Biggest Deal Since 2014, While CEO Backs Tax Plan

SAP Makes Biggest Deal Since 2014, While CEO Backs Tax Plan
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SAP CEO Bill McDermott has backed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax plan, and revealed a $2.4 billion deal for Callidus Software, its biggest acquisition in more than three years, according to Bloomberg.

SAP said it will pay $36 a share for Dublin, California-based Callidus, known as CallidusCloud, to give Europe’s biggest software company access to new sales analytic and customer engagement tools. Germany-based company also reported fourth quarter earnings, generating sales of 6.8 billion euros in the period, in line with analysts’ expectations, due to uptake of its flagship business software S/4 Hana. New cloud bookings, a keenly watched metric for future sales growth, grew 31 percent at constant currencies.

Trump’s tax plan was "extremely well received“ by CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, McDermott said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "There was not a single CEO I talked to that wasn’t feeling good about the economic momentum,“ he said. "2018 will be the year for investing in jobs, manufacturing, growth.“

Meanwhile, SAP’s flagship S/4 Hana software added 1,000 customers including Unilever and Puma in the fourth quarter to reach more than 7,900 users, a greater intake than in the previous three-month period. Operating profit, excluding share-based compensation, amortization and other charges, was 2.36 billion euros, missing the average estimate of 2.4 billion euros. The company sees non-IFRS operating profit in a range of 7.3 billion euros to 7.5 billion euros this year.