SAP Buying Visiprise

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) has agreed to acquire Visiprise Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based provider of manufacturing execution software. No financial terms were disclosed.

Visiprise has raised around $100 million in VC funding since late 1999, from firms like RRE Ventures, Wheatley Partners, Canaan Partners, Westbury Partners, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Internet Capital Group, Accenture Technology Ventures, Investor Growth Capital, BlueVector, RB Webber & Co. and Teradyne. 

PRESS RELEASE

SAP AG (SAP) today announced its intent to acquire Visiprise, Inc., a privately-held, leading provider of manufacturing execution software solutions delivering integrated manufacturing operations to companies of all sizes. With the addition of Visiprise, SAP will deliver on its “Perfect Plant” strategy to bring together core SAP solutions with the software, hardware and services offerings of ecosystem partners to drive innovation for discrete manufacturers. The integration of Visiprise's proven plant-level manufacturing execution solutions brings discrete manufacturing customers a robust product offering to increase production responsiveness, improve operational efficiencies and enhance quality and regulatory compliance.

Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, Visiprise serves more than 60 industry-leading, global customers including many existing SAP customers in discrete manufacturing industries including high tech, aerospace and defense, automotive and medical device. The acquisition of Visiprise is consistent with SAP's strategy to complement existing applications and solutions with smart purchases that offer innovative technologies and capabilities while maintaining its successful organic growth track record.

“The automation of business processes for manufacturing companies has been core to the SAP strategy for more than 30 years,” said Jim Hagemann Snabe, corporate office and member of the executive council, SAP AG. “We are excited to combine Visiprise's industry-leading manufacturing execution solutions with the power of the SAP Business Suite. This combination will offer manufacturers better visibility by linking the operations of the plant floor to production planning and operations management, enabling manufacturers to respond profitably to the growing demands of their global customers.”

Manufacturing executives and plant managers are under increasing pressure to coordinate manufacturing planning across the global supply network while driving efficient and responsive local execution to ensure the delivery of fast-moving products within short lead times. Through the combination of SAP(R) Business Suite applications, the SAP(R) Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) application and Visiprise Manufacturing, customers gain network-wide visibility, enterprise orchestration, plant to network data integration and the ability to deploy end-to-end, “plan to make” processes across multiple plants through an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) solution from a single partner. This helps manufacturers achieve operational excellence and ensure product and service leadership while continuously orchestrating a highly responsive supply network. Customers operating distributed manufacturing operations with facilities across the globe also benefit from SAP's worldwide support, services and ecosystem partners to lower total cost of ownership and achieve fast time to value for multi-plant execution system deployments.

SAP and Visiprise have a long and proven history of partnership as part of SAP's “Perfect Plant” initiative and related ecosystem dating back to 2005. In November 2006, Visiprise received an investment from the global SAP NetWeaver Fund. Soon after, in January 2007, Visiprise's flagship solution, Visiprise Manufacturing, was named an SAP-endorsed business solution. In February 2007, the Visiprise ERP Shop Floor Integration 1.0 packaged composite application achieved “SAP xApps Certified – Powered by SAP NetWeaver” status. Most recently, SAP agreed to resell and market the Visiprise Manufacturing product under the name SAP(R) Manufacturing Execution by Visiprise (see June 13, 2007 press release, titled “SAP Enhances Manufacturing Execution Capability for Discrete Manufacturers; Announces Global Reseller Agreement with Visiprise”). In addition, Visiprise solutions are fully integrated into live end-to-end manufacturing process scenarios showcased by Tata Consulting Services (TCS) at SAP's “Perfect Plant” center of excellence at SAP's Newtown Square facility. This strong track record of collaboration between the companies offers a smooth foundation for integration efforts and the combined vision towards next-generation manufacturing operations solutions. The acquisition of Visiprise solutions enables the companies to work together to more rapidly, making them available to a global marketplace.

“Best in class manufacturers understand the value of the integration of MES with ERP to provide a comprehensive manufacturing control solution,” said Sean McCloskey, president and CEO, Visiprise. “The compatibility between the Visiprise offering and SAP is undeniable and proven. We are excited to join the SAP team and work together to further serve our customers as their needs continue to evolve and grow.”

SAP anticipates that the acquisition will be completed in July 2008 pending necessary regulatory approvals in the United States and Europe. Visiprise employs approximately 300 employees and has additional offices in Carlsbad, California and Kiev, Ukraine. The company will provide additional details about the integration of the companies after the closing of the transaction. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed publicly.

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 47,800 customers (excludes customers from the acquisition of Business Objects) in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.” (For more information, visit http://www.sap.com)

(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications.

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