SAP to buy cloud computing company Ariba
by Paul J. Gough
Ariba Inc., the successor company to Pittsburgh tech company FreeMarkets, will be acquired by German software giant SAP AG for $4.3 billion.
Tuesday’s announcement gives SAP a bigger foothold in cloud computing in its battle against Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL). Ariba Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has 2,600 employees including an office in Pittsburgh.
The deal has the approval of the Ariba board of directors and could close in the third quarter of 2012 after the approval of Ariba’s shareholders and regulators. Ariba CEO Bob Calderoni will be named to the SAP Global Managing Board and Ariba’s management will continue to run the company as Ariba, an SAP company.