German business management software maker SAP AG is considering a sale of its TomorrowNow U.S. unit after announcing the departure of the scandal-plagued division's CEO late Monday.
Walldorf, Germany-based SAP said TomorrowNow executive chairman Mark White, who took the position in July, would continue to lead the company after the departure of CEO and company founder Andrew Nelson as well as "several members of his senior management team."
SAP "is considering several options for the future of the TomorrowNow business, including possible sale," the company said.
SAP first bought TomorrowNow nearly three years ago as part of a bitter feud with Redwood Shores, Calif.-based rival Oracle Corp. TomorrowNow specializes in installing and maintaining software made by PeopleSoft Inc. and J.D. Edwards & Co., which had been acquired by Oracle months before during a $20 billion spending spree.
The German group hoped the purchase would help it snare Oracle customers by offering TomorrowNow clients SAP products at a steep discount. But Oracle is now suing SAP in a San Francisco court, alleging "theft on a grand scale" and arguing that the TomorrowNow purchase allowed SAP to illegally gain access to internal Oracle documents.
SAP has admitted it wrongly downloaded some support documents from Oracle but denied it hoped to use the information illegally. The German group claimed the documents remained at Bryan, Texas-based TomorrowNow and were never given to SAP's corporate headquarters. The Justice Department has also launched an investigation into the claims.
The deal price was never disclosed, but analysts viewed the purchase of TomorrowNow as minor. When SAP made the acquisition, TomorrowNow had 30 employees and about 100 customers.
Separately, last month SAP acquired French enterprise software company Business Objects SA for $6.8 billion.
