By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

SAP, the leader in enterprise applications said it is acquiring Virsa Systems, one of the fastest growing private US software companies.

Virsa specializes in software to enable companies to be in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxely and other government regulations.

Here are extracts from the SAP press release, analysis follows in next post:

Founded in 1996, Virsa has more than 300 enterprise customers, many of which Global 1000 companies, across all major vertical market segments. SAP stated that the transaction with Virsa is continuing evidence of its strategy to use "fill-in" acquisitions to add to its broad solution offering by gaining specific technologies and capabilities that meet the needs of its customers, within industries or across industries, while maintaining its successful organic growth track record. Terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed.

Said Shai Agassi, president of the Product & Technology Group and executive board member, SAP AG. "Leading companies are looking to adopt an integrated view of governance, risk and compliance instead of the current reactive and fragmented approach. Acquiring Virsa extends the value of SAP applications and represents a key component of our strategy to be the primary source of enterprise risk management support, regardless of company size or industry segment.

Virsa is the leading provider of compliance solutions that monitor and enforce business controls in real time across enterprise systems and legacy applications. Virsa solutions help customers maintain continuous compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLB and other regulations. SAP and Virsa already have a highly successful relationship at three levels:

-- Technology: Virsa solutions are designed and delivered on the SAP

NetWeaver® platform, making Virsa one of the more than 1,000

independent software vendors (ISVs) who have committed to build and

market solutions on SAP's leading platform.

-- Go to Market: SAP and Virsa have been closely aligned in joint

marketing, sales and product development activities. Since March 2005,

SAP has been reselling Virsa's flagship product, Compliance

Calibrator(TM), as an add-on to mySAP ERP. In the one-year period since

that agreement was announced, SAP and Virsa have partnered on more than

150 customer wins. Additionally, SAP Ventures is an investor in Virsa.

-- Customer / Vendor: SAP has one of the largest global deployments of

Virsa's Compliance Calibrator and Access Enforcer, with more than

40,000 users around the world.

"Virsa established itself as an innovator by embedding compliance into business processes -- making compliance repeatable, sustainable and less costly," said Jasvir Gill, CEO and founder, Virsa Systems, Inc. "Together, SAP and Virsa are simplifying cross-enterprise compliance so that CEOs and CFOs can focus their core business instead of compliance.

In making the announcement, SAP stated that the acquisition is expected to be completed in May 2006 and is subject to the approval of the respective antitrust authorities. Headquartered in Fremont, California, Virsa employs nearly 250 people and has offices throughout the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, Germany, India and Australia. While integration plans are now being explored, SAP said it intended to continue operations in these offices and that Virsa employees would become part of SAP America and the worldwide network of SAP Labs.