SAP’s whopping $8.3 billion acquisition of Concur is moving forward, with approval from the boards of both companies. But the deal has not yet been consummated, and still must meet regulatory and shareholder approval.
There’s also a chance that another suitor could step up, and counter SAP’s offer, a 20 percent premium over Concur’s stock price Tuesday.
If that occurs and Concur accepts a bigger buyout deal, the Bellevue-based maker of travel and entertainment expense management software is on the hook to pay a $265 million termination fee, according to documents filed this morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
GigaOm reports that Microsoft and Oracle rebuffed acquisition talks with Concur.
Based on how the CEOs of the two companies interacted yesterday on a conference call, that scenario seems unlikely to happen. SAP CEO Bill McDermott absolutely gushed about the Concur management team, particularly Steve Singh who he said has a massive business network “in the palm of his hand.
That admiration continued in a transcript posted today in which McDermott said he wanted SAP to become Concur’s largest customer.
“I got 67,000 people that will love to be running on Concur,” he said. “And, as an ecosystem of 2.1 million people that are engaged with the SAP franchise, that I have a feeling would also benefit from Concur, just for starters. But here’s the idea. I think the idea for everybody in the company is to recognize that, in a certain sense, nothing changed. You’re still Concur.”
