SAP CEO Dismisses Acquisition Of “Commoditised” SalesForce.com

German tech giant SAP today strongly denied claims it was eyeing the acquisition of marketing software company Salesforce.com, even going as far as criticising the firm.

SAP was one of several tech players linked with Salesforce in recent days following a Bloomberg report indicating the company had appointed bankers to help it assess different takeover offers.

Microsoft, Oracle, Google and SAP were considered the primary suitors for the acquisition, given the nature of their businesses.

“We have never bought something that we thought was impaired, or on the decline, or actually commoditised, and therefore we have zero interest in Salesforce.com and nor have we ever had any interest in Salesforce.com,” CEO Bill McDermott said in response to questions at SAP’s annual SAPPHIRE conference in Florida.

Salesforce has seen a decline in its traditional customer relationship segment, leading the company to expand into other verticals like marketing and analytics.

Microsoft is considered favourite to acquire the firm by some analysts, due to potential benefits of combining the former’s cloud software with Salesforce’s marketing applications.

A Salesforce acquisition is expected to be among the largest in the software segment, with some analysts suggesting the company could be worth over $50 billion. Salesforce.com has a market capitalisation of $48.1 billion.

SAP has spent roughly $20 billion on M&A since the start of the decade, but company executives have indicated the $7.3 billion acquisition of travel and expense management software company Concur, completed last year, will not be followed by a spending spree.

In response to another question, McDermott said SAP was not seeking deals to boost its B2B network, which was enhanced by the $4.3 billion acquisition of business commerce network Ariba in 2012.

“We will predominantly build this [the business network] out on an organic basis,” McDermott said. “Consider it an organic move, do not wait for M&A, our powder is dry.”