SAP open to merger or takeover: founder and major shareholder

FRANKFURT - SAP, the world's leading maker of business software, would be open to a merger or a takeover by companies such as IBM, Microsoft or Google, if the price were right, one of SAP's co-founders and biggest shareholders said.

If an interesting offer were made, his vote would be dependent on whether a deal made economic sense, SAP's co-founder and supervisory board chief Hasso Plattner told the Financial Times Deutschland in an interview.

As supervisory board chief, he had to act in the interests of the other shareholders, he added.

"If the shareholders are of the opinion that another sort of tie-up is better than independence, then that will happen," said Plattner, who currently owns 10.9 percent of SAP.

SAP's current market capitalisation is around 51.7 billion euros (66 billion dollars).

But the number of potential buyers was very small, Plattner said.

"There are only three potential buyers -- IBM, Microsoft and Google. I don't see any others."

And he added: "I don't want to start rumours. There are no negotiations underway. But I don't want to say that I dislike them so much that I can't imagine (a tie-up)."

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