SAP to acquire retail management vendor |
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By Robert Westervelt, News Editor
19 Sep 2005 | SearchSAP.com |
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SAP has announced plans to acquire Toronto-based Triversity, which makes point-of-sale software for the retail industry.
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The acquisition of Triversity falls right in line with our strategy of acquiring companies to enhance product functionality and extend our leading position within key industry verticals.
Bill McDermott,
president and CEO, SAP America Inc.
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Triversity sells its products to more than 250 firms that use it in retail outlets in more than 30 countries. Terms of the deal, expected to close next month, were not disclosed.
The Body Shop, Casa Ley, Indigo Books, Wawa and Trader Joe's are among the customers that SAP and Triversity currently have in common, SAP said today in an announcement.
Triversity software manages traditional and enterprise point-of-sale, store inventory management, loss prevention, customer loyalty operations, stored value, store back-office, and in-store and multi-channel customer service. SAP said it plans to couple Triversity's software with its SAP for Retail suite.
"The acquisition of Triversity falls right in line with our strategy of acquiring companies to enhance product functionality and extend our leading position within key industry verticals," Bill McDermott, president and CEO of SAP America Inc., said in a statement.
SAP and Oracle Corp. have been waging a battle for superiority in the retail software market over the last year. While SAP has had much success with its retail specific software outside the U.S., it has struggled to break into the U.S. market, according to analysts.
In March, Oracle beat out SAP in a short bidding war for Retek Inc., a retail software vendor, acquiring the retail software maker for about $670 million.
Analysts said SAP, which already produces a retail industry-specific software suite, was successful in driving up the price of Retek.
The bulk of the technology being used by retailers consists of best-of-breed software, according to Robert Garf, an analyst who follows the retail industry for Boston-based AMR Research Inc. SAP and Oracle battled over Retek because of a surge in IT spending in the retail industry resulting from retail consolidation and retailers updating legacy systems.
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