The consolidation fairy has struck again.
SAP said late Tuesday that SAP America will be buying Ariba for about
$4.3 billion, paying $45 a share, a 20% premium, for a company that had
revenues of $443.9 million last year, up 38.5%.
Ariba also reportedly has $196 million in the bank.
Ariba’s purchase price falls in between two big recent SAP purchases: the
$5.8 billion it paid for the Sybase database in 2010 and the $3.4 billion it
paid for SuccessFactors and its talent management widgetry late last year.
Spending like it was Oracle, SAP paid $6.8 billion for French BI house
Business Objects in 2007.