SAP and Microsoft Make App Development and Cloud Management Easier

Microsoft’s broad partner ecosystem is what powers increased value and solutions for customers and their evolving business needs.

One example of this is today’s announcement of SAP and Microsoft’s plans to focus on two key areas: first, to help .NET Framework developers more easily build applications connecting to SAP, and second, to help customers harness the power of the cloud.

As a result of this announcement, developers can expect much more support and integration between the development worlds of SAP and Microsoft. Business processes from SAP software can now be easily consumed and extended by .NET developers, simplifying the overall application development process. This level of access will immediately reduce the number of steps developers must take in order to ensure application integration, and also lead to shorter development cycles and lower costs.

Microsoft and SAP also plan to provide integration between SAP’s landscape management software, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V technology, bringing greater agility to cloud management and deployments.

This integration will instill enhanced flexibility, scalability and management in the cloud, all while reducing cost and risk. Through these connected offerings, SAP and Microsoft customers will be able to easily scale their deployments in their own data centers or through private clouds, for example, if they have a workload that needs on-demand scale periodically, such as a paycheck or employee performance review application.

Together, Microsoft and SAP are committed to driving greater levels of innovation and flexibility for application development and cloud deployment – from your datacenter to the public cloud, eventually enabling hybrid computing scenarios via Windows Azure for companies to embrace cloud computing on their terms.

This announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011 where Microsoft was also named SAP Global Technology Partner of the Year.

Posted by Ted Kummert (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/05/18/sap-and-microsoft-make-app-development-and-cloud-management-easier.aspx)
Senior Vice President, Business Platform Division, Microsoft

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Activant and Epicor being bought by Apax Partners

Software providers Epicor Software Corp. and Activant Solutions Inc. agreed to buyout offers from funds affiliated with private-equity firm Apax Partners in a combined deal valued at about $2 billion.

Epicor shares surged 11% to $12.50 in early Monday trading on the Nasdaq stock market, matching the per-share offer price. The stock had gained 18% over the past 12 months. Epicor said the total value of its deal, which likely includes debt, is about $976 million.

Activant is currently owned by funds affiliated with Hellman & Friedman LLC, Thoma Bravo LLC and JMI Equity.

Apax plans to merge the two companies as a private firm under the Epicor name. The combined company will have more than 30,000 customers and $825 million in annual revenues, Apax said.

Sales at Epicor, which makes integrated enterprise and business software, have improved as clients for its business software started to spend again. Its latest fourth-quarter profit narrowed on higher costs, though the top line continued to grow.

Activant provides software for mid-market retail and wholesale distribution businesses.

Shareholders representing about 19% of Epicor's outstanding shares, including private-equity firm Elliott Associates LP, have backed the deal.

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