German business management software firm SAP AG is buying a chunk of its German business partner IDS Prof Scheer GmbH in a move that will see the companies developing software components for the public sector. Financial details have not been disclosed, but SAP will take a 25.2% stake in the company that has an annual revenue of $52m. SAP’s vice president of corporate communications, Michael Pfister said the acquisition will go ahead subject to approval of German cartel officials and its own supervisory board, but said he cannot foresee a problem. The next meeting with the supervisory board is scheduled for July 23. IDS was established in 1985, as a spin off from the Institute for Information Systems at the University of Saarbrucken, and has plans to go public by the middle of next year. If SAP’s purchase goes ahead this will apparently not be affected. The two companies have been working together for the past 12 years in logistics and information systems modeling and IDS contributed the development of SAP’s roadmap for implementing its R/3 software. Commenting on the acquisition and possible future ventures, Pfister said: We don’t have plans to make major acquisitions but minor investments are interesting; this acquisition is a good opportunity for both parties.
