SAP Surprises; Salesforce’s Naked Platform; JDA Takes on i2 and Manhattan | AMR Research

SAP Surprises; Salesforce’s Naked Platform; JDA Takes on i2 and Manhattan | AMR Research

SAP Surprises; Salesforce’s Naked Platform; JDA Takes on i2 and Manhattan
by Bruce Richardson


Coming into this week’s earning announcement, I fully expected SAP to announce lower than expected revenue and earnings. Here were my reasons:

- The company had had a relatively weak fourth quarter.
- Unlike past quarters, there was no pre-announcement of results.
- In late March, the company was hit with a lawsuit by Oracle and the sudden resignation of Shai Agassi, one of its top executives.
- Most of our current client conversations focus on dealing with the cost and time of upgrades versus the benefits of must-have new products.
- SAP had scheduled the earnings call for a Friday, and it had never done this before. Were executives hoping to get the bad news out quickly and then offset it with more positive news at SAPPHIRE, which starts today?