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WALLDORF - January 30, 2008 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced its preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2007.1
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Core Enterprise Applications Vendor Share3 SAP reported its eighth consecutive quarter of share gains. Based on 2007 software and software related service revenues on a rolling four-quarter basis, SAP’s worldwide share of Core Enterprise Applications vendors3, which account for approximately $36.7 billion in software and software related service revenues as defined by the Company based on industry analyst research, was 28.4% for the four quarter period ended December 31, 2007 compared to 26.9% for the four quarter period ended September 30, 2007, and 24.4% for the four quarter period ended December 31, 2006, representing a year-over-year share gain of 4.0 percentage points.
“2007 represented another good year for SAP with strong growth in software and software related services,” said Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP. “The outstanding performance reflects the continued success we are seeing in SAP’s established business, which will continue to be the foundation for growth heading into 2008 and beyond. We expect new innovations like SAP Business ByDesign to help us capture tremendous opportunities in untapped segments in the midmarket, to augment growth going forward. In addition, the recent acquisition of Business Objects makes us the clear leader in business performance optimization products. This will help us further penetrate the fast-growing business user segment and will be another driver of growth as we move ahead.”
Share Buyback In the fourth quarter of 2007, the Company bought back 6.9 million shares at an average price of €36.25 (total amount: €249 million). As of December 31, 2007, the Company held treasury stock in the amount of 48.1 million shares (approximately 3.9% of total shares outstanding) at an average price of €36.07. For the full year 2007, the company invested €1 billion buying back approximately 27.3 million shares (2.19% of the total shares outstanding) at an average price of €36.85. For 2008, the Company expects to invest approximately €500 million buying back shares.
About SAP SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software*. More than 46,100 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications—from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol “SAP.” (Additional information at <http://www.sap.com>)
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
Copyright © 2008 SAP AG. All rights reserved. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
For more information, press only: Herbert Heitmann, +49 (6227) 7-61137, herbert.heitmann@sap.com, CET Christoph Liedtke, +49 6227 7-50383, christoph.liedtke@sap.com, CET Frank Hartmann, +49 (6227) 7-42548, f.hartmann@sap.com, CET Andy Kendzie +1 (202) 312-3919, andy.kendzie@sap.com, EST For more information, financial community only: Stefan Gruber, +49 (6227) 7-44872, investor@sap.com, CET Martin Cohen, +1 (212) 653-9619, investor@sap.com, EST
2) Non-GAAP Financial Measures This document discloses certain financial measures, such as Non-GAAP revenues, Non GAAP-operating income, Non-GAAP operating margin, free cash flow, and constant currency period-over-period changes in revenue and operating income, that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and are therefore considered non-GAAP financial measures. Our non-GAAP financial measures may not correspond to non-GAAP financial measures that other companies report. The non-GAAP financial measures that we report should be considered as additional to, and not as substitutes for or superior to, revenue, operating income, cash flows, or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. This footnote explains and reconciles our non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest U.S. GAAP measure.
NON-GAAP REVENUES, NON-GAAP OPERATING INCOME AND NON-GAAP OPERATING MARGIN We believe that it is of interest to investors to receive certain supplemental historical and prospective financial information used by our management in running our business – in addition to financial data prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Beginning in 2008 we intend to use both Non GAAP revenues and Non GAAP operating income and margin as defined below consistently in our planning, forecasting, reporting, compensation and external communication:
Non-GAAP revenue: Revenues in this document identified as “Non-GAAP revenue” have been adjusted from the respective U.S. GAAP numbers by including the full amount of Business Objects support revenues that would have been reflected by Business Objects had it remained a stand-alone entity but are not permitted to be reflected as revenues under U.S. GAAP as a result of fair value accounting for Business Objects support contracts in effect at the time of the Business Objects acquisition.
Under U.S. GAAP we will record at fair value the Business Objects support contracts in effect at the time of the acquisition of Business Objects. Consequently, our U.S. GAAP support revenues, our U.S. GAAP software and software related service revenues and our U.S. GAAP total revenues for periods subsequent to the Business Objects acquisition will not reflect the full amount of support revenue that Business Objects would record for these support contracts absent the acquisition by SAP. Adjusting revenue numbers for this one-time revenue impact provides additional insight into our ongoing performance because the support contracts are typically one-year contracts and renewals of these contracts are expected to result in revenues that are not impacted by the business combination-related fair value accounting.
We believe that our Non-GAAP revenue numbers have limitations, particularly as the eliminated amounts may be material to us. We therefore do not evaluate our growth and performance without considering both Non-GAAP revenues and U.S. GAAP revenues. We caution the readers of this document to follow a similar approach by considering our Non-GAAP revenues only in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, revenues or other measures of our financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Non-GAAP operating income / Non GAAP operating margin: Operating income and operating margin in this document identified as “Non-GAAP operating income” or “Non-GAAP operating margin” have been adjusted from the respective operating income and operating margin numbers as recorded under U.S. GAAP by including the full amount of Business Objects support revenues to be included in Non-GAAP revenue, and by excluding acquisition-related charges. Acquisition related charges in this context comprise:
We believe that our Non-GAAP financial measures described above have limitations, particularly as the eliminated amounts may be material to us. We therefore do not evaluate our growth and performance without considering both Non-GAAP operating income and margin numbers and U.S. GAAP operating income and margin numbers. We caution the readers of this document to follow a similar approach by considering our Non-GAAP operating income and margin numbers only in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, revenues or other measures of our financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
The Non-GAAP revenues and Non GAAP operating income and margin data reported in this document reconcile to the nearest U.S. GAAP measure as follows:
FREE CASH FLOW: We believe that free cash flow is a widely accepted supplemental measure of liquidity. Free cash flow measures a company's cash flow remaining after all expenditures required to maintain or expand the business have been paid off. We calculate free cash flow as operating cash flow from continuing operations minus additions to long-lived assets excluding additions from acquisitions. Free cash flow should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, cash flow or other measures of liquidity and financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Free cash flow reconciles to the nearest U.S. GAAP measure as follows:
Constant Currency Period-Over-Period Changes We believe it is important for investors to have information that provides insight into our sales growth. Revenue measures determined under U.S. GAAP provide information that is useful in this regard. However, both growth in sales volume and currency effects impact period-over-period changes in sales revenue. We do not sell standardized units of products and services, so we cannot provide relevant information on sales volume growth by providing data on the growth in product and service units sold. To provide additional information that may be useful to investors in breaking down and evaluating sales volume growth, we present information about our revenue growth and various values and components relating to operating income that are adjusted for foreign currency effects. We calculate constant currency year-over-year changes in revenue and operating income by translating foreign currencies using the average exchange rates from the previous (comparator) year instead of the report year.
We believe that data on constant currency period-over-period changes have limitations, particularly as the currency effects that are eliminated constitute a significant element of our revenues and expenses and may severely impact our performance. We therefore limit our use of constant currency period-over-period changes to the analysis of changes in volume as one element of the full change in a financial measure. We do not evaluate our growth and performance without considering both constant currency period-over-period changes on the one hand and changes in revenues, expenses, income, or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP on the other. We caution the readers of this document to follow a similar approach by considering data on constant currency period-over-period changes only in addition to, and not as a substitute for or superior to, changes in revenues, expenses, income, or other measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.
Constant currency year-over-year changes in revenue and operating income reconcile to the respective unadjusted year-over-year changes as follows:
3) Core Enterprise Applications Vendor Share Beginning in the first quarter of 2007, the Company began using software and software related service revenues for defining Core Enterprise Application Vendor Share because the Company believes that this is the most important indicator for vendor share oriented analysis with the realignment of its income statement structure. Prior to the first quarter of 2007, the Company had been using software revenues for defining Core Enterprise Application Vendor Share.
The Company provides share data based on the vendors of Core Enterprise Applications solutions, which account for approximately $36.7 billion in software and software related service revenues as defined by the Company based on industry analyst research. For 2007, industry analysts project approximately 7% year-on-year growth for core Enterprise Applications vendors. For its quarterly share calculation, SAP assumes that this approximate 7% growth will not be linear throughout the year. Instead, quarterly adjustments are made based on the financial performance of a sub set (approximately 25) of Core Enterprise Application vendors.
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