graphic
News > International
SAP ups Commerce stake
June 29, 2001: 2:58 a.m. ET

Europe's No. 1 software maker boosts under fire U.S. e-business company
graphic
graphic graphic
graphic
LONDON (CNN) - Europe's largest software maker SAP plans to make an extra $225 million investment in Commerce One, boosting the U.S. e-commerce company.

The German business software company's move came as Commerce One issued its second revenue warning of the year in New York early on Friday.

SAP said the investment would raise its stake in Pleasanton, California-based Commerce One (CMRC: Research, Estimates) to about 20 percent.

The statement removes doubts expressed by technology analysts in recent weeks that the SAP-Commerce One partnership was in danger.

Commerce One makes business-to-business software that brings buyers and suppliers together over the Internet.

The company has a contract to be a technology partner in one of the most successful trading places Covisint, a Detroit- based online auto parts purchasing exchange used by the main U.S. automakers.

But earlier this week it failed to win shareholder approval for a management proposal to make Commerce One into a holding company and give it a potentially lucrative stake in Covisint.

Once a leading light in the business-to-business software sector, Commerce One has seen its shares drop from high of $78.50 in September 2000 to just over $3 earlier this month.

Commerce One's Chief Executive Mark Hoffman was moved to give an interview to Reuters on June 21 after meeting sector analysts to remove uncertainty that had pummeled the company's stock.

"Our relationship with SAP is actually better than it ever has been before, on products, on marketing and on sales," Hoffman said at the time. "That's why this stuff is so shocking."

Commerce One, meantime, said on Friday it expects second-quarter revenues to be lower than expectations because of the economic slowdown.

The company said it expects revenues for the quarter to June 30 to be about $100 million to $120 million, compared with average forecasts of $162 million.

"While we continue to see growth in our pipeline, poor economic conditions significantly extended our customers' decision cycles during the quarter, especially in Europe," Hoffman said in a statement on Friday.

"We remain cautiously optimistic regarding the second half of the year, based on both the quality of our independent pipeline and the growing joint pipeline with SAP," he added.

The shares closed up 13 percent at $4.26 in Nasdaq trading on Thursday. graphic





graphic

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.