SAP has revealed plans to acquire hybris, a rapidly growing and widely recognised player in the e-commerce technology market.
The acquisition positions SAP to deliver the next-generation e-commerce platform, with the choice of on-premise or cloud deployment, as enterprises around the world seek to optimise the customer experience for businesses and consumers across an ever-growing number of delivery channels, devices and touch points.
The combination of enterprise solutions from SAP with the agile omni-channel commerce solutions of hybris is hoped to provide enterprises with the enhanced data and tools necessary to optimise margins and customer loyalty. With a holistic view of the customer relationship, SAP solutions help enterprises manage the full spectrum of customer engagement -- across sales, service, marketing and commerce -- while maintaining understanding and intimacy through social channels.
Estimated at a total value of $37 billion by industry analysts, the e-commerce technology market is experiencing rapid growth as businesses adapt to changing customer behaviours that seamlessly cross Web, mobile, store, contact centre and other points of engagement. Big data, cloud and social technologies only heighten demand for innovative commerce solutions needed for managing consistent customer engagement. Growing at more than twice the rate of the retail industry, e-commerce is increasingly recognised as a critical capability in identifying, winning and growing profitable customer relationships.
In a joint statement, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEOs, SAP AG, said: "hybris puts SAP on the leading edge of the consumer economy. With hybris, SAP has made a decisive move to raise the stakes in customer relationship management and define the next generation customer experience."
Founded in 1997 with headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, hybris aims to offer a complete omni-channel commerce platform that incorporates Web, mobile, call centre and store solutions, hybris helps businesses of all sizes on every continent sell more goods, services and digital content through every touch point, channel and device. hybris' solutions provide a single view of customers, products and orders across multiple demand and delivery channels, made possible by state-of-the-art master data management and unified commerce processes for all channels. The company's majority investor is HGGC, a private investment firm based in Palo Alto, California.
The combination of hybris' commerce platform with the flagship in-memory platform SAP HANA, analytical and cloud applications, and the SAP Jam social software platform will give SAP a significant edge in delivering new levels of customer insight and engagement across all channels. Following the launch of the SAP 360 Customer solution, which introduced the SAP CRM application powered by SAP HANA, the acquisition will further SAP's ability to help companies fully engage customers to improve loyalty and create stronger, more valuable relationships.
Ariel Lüdi, CEO, hybris and Carsten Thoma, president and co-founder, hybris, commented in a joint statement: "hybris is a recognised leader in commerce platform technology, and the combination with SAP will enable us to deliver complete omni-channel business solutions and continue our strong growth trajectory.
"Joining with SAP will significantly expand the scope, scale and power of hybris' commerce platform, and allow us to deliver the next generation of customer engagement innovation across all channels."
Upon completion of the transaction, expected in the third quarter of 2013 and subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions, hybris will operate as an independent business unit and will retain its existing management team led by Lüdi and Thoma.
