SAP Replaces CEO With 2 Co-CEOs
SAP, the world's largest business software company, said Léo Apotheker has been replaced as CEO.
Dennis Howlett, on ZDNet, writes that Mr Apotheker's departure wasn't unexpected. But it was surprising that the company acted so soon.
SAP is headquartered in Germany and has a large presence in Silicon Valley. The company beat analyst estimates for Q4 but profits fell 12% and revenues were down 9% from a year ago.
UPDATE:
Vinnie Mirchandani in Deal Architect writes: Enterprise software is entirely bereft of soul
...the reality is the customer has been forgotten in enterprise software, not just at SAP. It's about squeezing as much out of old technology as possible. As I wrote earlier in the week. "I wish the other bigger vendors had the cajones to acknowledge they similarly mostly live off profits from software 15- 20 years old, from consultants which implement that old software and provide services from data centers which were designed during the Cold War."
Leo was expected to do more of the same in his new role as CEO. So, he did - unbelievably pushing maintenance price hikes in the middle of the deep recession. For all his talk about taking on the partners who have piled 5 to 10X costs on top of SAP's own expensive solutions, he really could not - they were part of the "field" he created.