Software firm SAP maintains 2012 forecasts
GERMAN business software group SAP fell short of expectations for sales of a new database product called Hana, raising concerns about the success of the product and sending SAP shares down against the sector trend.
Although the world’s biggest maker of business software said it saw strong momentum for its main products, including Hana and its mobile software unit, and kept its full-year outlook, its shares lagged a rise in the technology sector as a whole.
The company and its investors have high hopes Hana will snatch market share from main competitor Oracle, but Hana and the mobile software unit – another area which SAP sees as potentially key in future – only fetched €49m in sales in the first quarter.
Hana came to market last year and generated €160m in sales through the end of 2011. SAP wants to double revenue from the product to €320m and double sales from mobile software to €220m.