Software AG

Summary

Software AG is a German multinational software corporation that develops enterprise software for business process management, integration, and big data analytics. Founded in 1969, the company is headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany, and has offices worldwide.

Software AG
Company typePublic
FWB: SOW
IndustryComputer software
Founded1969; 55 years ago (1969)
HeadquartersDarmstadt, Germany
Key people
  • Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO
    Totkam Khatibzade
    Gross Bernd
    Stefan Sigg
ProductsDigital Transformation & Internet of Things software and consulting including ARIS, webMethods, Adabas & Natural, NaturalONE, Apama, Cumulocity, Zementis, Alfabet, Mashzone Nextgen, CONNX, and Terracotta
RevenueIncrease €958.2 million (2022)[1]
Decrease €75.6 million (2022)[1]
Decrease €19.2 million (2022)[1]
Total assetsIncrease €2678.4 million (2022)[1]
Total equityIncrease €1511.2 million (2022)[1]
Owner
Number of employees
4996 (FTE, 2022)[1]
Websitewww.softwareag.com

With over 10,000 enterprise customers in over 70 countries, it is the second largest software vendor in Germany, and the seventh largest in Europe.[2] Software AG is traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “SOW” and part of the technology index TecDAX.[3]

In 2023, Silver Lake and Bain Capital made separate offers to buy the German company. In June, Software AG had most of its controlling interest acquired by Silver Lake, in a deal valued at 2.4 billion euros.[4][5]

History edit

The company was founded in 1969 by six young employees at the consulting firm AIV (Institut für Angewandte Informationsverarbeitung). One of the founders was the mathematician Peter Schnell, who later became chairman of the board for many years.

ADABAS was launched in 1971 as a high-performance transactional database management system. In 1979, Natural, a 4GL application development English-like language, that was mainly developed by Peter Pagé, was launched. The company continued to open offices and subsidiaries in North America (1971), Japan (1974), UK (1977), France (1983), Spain (1984), Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia (1985).

By 1987, Software AG had around 500 employees, 12 subsidiaries in Europe and offices in more than 50 countries. In 1999, Software AG was listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange and soon after the company released Tamino Information Server and Tamino XML Server.[3]

In January 2005, Software AG acquired Sabratec Ltd, a privately held legacy integration vendor headquartered in Israel.[6] This was followed by the acquisition of its Israeli distributor SPL Software in March 2007[7] and the application modernization business of another Israeli company, Jacada in December 2007,[8] which formed the basis for its research and development center in Israel.

The company launched Centrasite SOA Governance platform in 2006 and with the $546M acquisition of U.S. rival webMethods in 2007 Software AG became active in the enterprise service bus, business process management and service-oriented architecture (SOA) product space.[9]

In July 2009, it announced a takeover offer for the Germany-based company IDS Scheer AG. Since February 2010, IDS Scheer is part of the Software AG Group.[10] In October 2010, the company acquired New Jersey based Data Foundations, a leading master data management provider.[11]

In May 2011, Software AG acquired Terracotta, Inc. and Metismo Ltd. Terracotta Inc is in the field of in-memory technology for high-performance applications and cloud services - especially the middleware platform WebMethods should benefit from this acquisition.[promotion?][12]

In April 2012, Software AG (SAG) announced buying the British technology provider my-Channels. With it, Software AG gained in-house access to universal messaging technology that allowed the company to transfer their data streams quickly and safely to the cloud and mobile applications.[13]

In March 2013, SAG invested in Berlin-based company metaquark, which is specialized in mobile software - the aim is to jointly develop the webMethods Mobile Suite.[14] In April, Software AG bought the US cloud platform provider LongJump, which offers modules and templates for building and running business applications in the public or private cloud settings.[15]

On June 13, 2013, it acquired alfabet AG, a software provider of enterprise architecture and IT portfolio management.[16] Then SAG announced purchased the Apama Complex Event Processing platform of Progress Software; the platform provides an environment for the design and operation of CEP applications providing tools and graphical analysis and test capabilities for analysts, developers and administrators.[17]

In August 2013, Software AG acquired JackBe to serve as the foundation for its Intelligent Business Operations Platform, which provides analytics and decision management for real-time applications.[18] In December, Software AG invested in big data analytics company Datameer,[19][20] which offers self-service Big Data Analytics and "to follow cutting edge technology trends".[21]

On March 27, 2017 SAG announced the acquisition of Cumulocity GmbH, based in Düsseldorf, Germany.[22] On June 12, 2018 Software AG acquired the Belgian self-service analytics company, TrendMiner NV., a specialist in virtual data analysis for the manufacturing and process industry.[23]

In April 2023, private equity firm Silver Lake agreed to buy the company for €2.2 billion (US$2.4 billion).[24] Silver Lake was outbid by Bain Capital in a non-binding counteroffer through its portfolio company Rocket Software, but Software AG's board and management supported the original offer citing its higher likelihood to go through and since it would remain an independent company.[25][26] In June 2023, Silver Lake secured 63% of Software AG.[27]

Corruption allegations edit

In July 2017 allegations emerged in South Africa that Software AG made "kickback" payments by entering into questionable commission agreements with a Gupta-controlled company in the hope of securing lucrative state contracts.[28] "Software AG [launched] an internal investigation after a media report alleged it had paid kickbacks as part of a wide-ranging South African scandal..."[29]

Acquisitions edit

Company acquired Country Date Business Reference
Built.io   USA November 2018 IoT & Cloud Integration [30]
TrendMiner   Belgium June 2018 Data Analytics & Visualization [31]
Cumulocity   Germany March 2017 IoT & Cloud Integration [32]
Zementis   USA December 2017 Predictive Analytics & Big Data [33]
CONNX Solution   USA August 2016 Technology Provider [34]
alfabet   Germany June 2013 Enterprise Software [citation needed]
Apama   UK June 2013 Software Product [35]
LongJump   USA April 2013 CRM Software [36]
Metaquark   USA May 2014 Mobile Software [14]
JackBe   USA August 2014 Artificial Intelligence [37]
my-Channels   UK April 2012 Messaging Platform Software [38]
Terracotta, Inc   USA May 2011 Computer Software [39]
Metismo   UK May 2011 Mobile Middleware [40]
Data Foundations   USA October 2010 Enterprise Software [citation needed]
RTM Real Time Monitoring   Germany April 2010 Technology Provider [citation needed]
Teconomic   Switzerland July 2009 Fintech [41]
itCampus   Germany October 2018 IT Software [citation needed]
IDS Scheer   Germany July 2009 IT Software and ERP Consulting [42]
Jacada   USA December 2007 IT Software [43]
webMethods   USA April 2007 ecommerce Software [44]
SPL Software   Israel March 2007 System Integration [citation needed]
StreamSets, Inc   USA February 2022 Data Engineering [45]

Products edit

Software AG markets software products in technologies like DBMS, application modernization, SOA, BPMS and ESB.[46] Below are a few of their products on the market.

  • ADABAS – a high performance transactional database management system
  • Alfabet – IT Planning, Portfolio Management, and Enterprise Architecture Software
  • Apama – Platform for streaming analytics and intelligent automated action on fast-moving big data. Combines event processing, messaging, in-memory data management and visualization.
  • ARIS – acquired business process analysis platform. A free version is available as ARIS Express.
  • Centrasite – a flagship SOA governance application which provides UDDI as well as governance
  • CONNX - Data Access, Data Movement (ETL), Streaming Analytics
  • Cumulocity – an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that provides services for connectivity for networked digital devices and sensors
  • Natural – an English-like fourth-generation programming language for application development
  • NaturalONE - Eclipse-based integrated development environment natural applications
  • Presto – Self-service, real-time data visualization and exploration tool combines data from different applications to create mashups, which can be displayed on any device.
  • Tamino Information Server – Information server based on XML for the storage, management and transfer of structured and unstructured data,[47] now called webMethods Tamino
  • Terracotta, Inc. – Company behind opensource Ehcache. Big memory, Quartz scheduler are their primary products. My-Channel's Nirvana messaging is now offered as Terracotta Universal Messaging.
  • webMethods – an ESB, API Management, BPMS, SOA enablement, MDM and B2B integration
  • Cumulocity IoT - an IoT product, providing hardware, Cloud and Edge Services as well as platforms adaptable to the Software AG Cloud

Gartner Rankings edit

Software AG has been consistently ranked as a leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant reports for enterprise integration platform as a service (iPaaS), enterprise architecture tools, and application integration middleware. In the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service, it was ranked as a leader for the fifth consecutive time.

In the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools, SAG was also ranked as a leader for the fifth consecutive time. Additionally, in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Integration Middleware, the company was ranked as a leader for the 15th consecutive time.[48]

Communities edit

Software AG uses two main customer communities: the ARIS Community,[49] for the user group around ARIS, and the TECHcommunity,[50] for collaboration around Cumulocity IoT, Adabas & Natural, webMethods, Apama, Alfabet, TrendMiner. In August 2021 Software AG introduced its virtual platform Software AG Groups where developers and customers can connect, collaborate, learn and share ideas.

The Software AG University Relations Program organizes events and features free education packages that are self-explanatory, easy to use and made for remote learning. In an effort to build an academic user group, students gain free access to software, video tutorials and online training with the option to get certified upon completion.[51]

In 2022, Software AG partnered with the all electric ERA Championship as a title sponsor, bringing their technological expertise to the series, implementing solutions regarding data and utilizing the series as a platform for the company's ESG initiatives.[52]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Software AG Profit & Loss account, Software AG Financial Statement & Accounts".
  2. ^ "European software vendors ranking 2014". TRUFFLE CAPITAL. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Software AG O.N. (Frankfurt) Stock Price - SOW". ADVFN. 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  4. ^ "Silver Lake acquires majority stake in Software AG". Private Equity Eire. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  5. ^ "US private equity firm Silver Lake acquires majority stake in Software AG at €2.4 billion, intends to delist the company ASAP". Tech.eu. 30 June 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  6. ^ "Software AG to Acquire Legacy Integration Technology Company Sabratec Ltd". Globes. 9 January 2005.
  7. ^ "Software AG: US will be our top market in future". Jerusalem Post. 2012-10-25.
  8. ^ "Jacada Announces Sale of its Application Modernization Business to Software AG for $26 Million". Reuters (Press Release). December 20, 2007. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012.
  9. ^ "Company History - Software AG". Software AG.
  10. ^ "The domination and profit transfer agreement between Software AG and IDS Scheer AG now registered". Software AG.
  11. ^ Schweizer, Kristen (October 26, 2010). "Software AG Raises Forecast on Profit Gain, IDS Scheer Purchase". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
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  14. ^ a b Schindler, Martin (27 March 2013). "Software AG investiert in mobiles Startup" [Software AG invests in mobile startup] (in German). silicon.de.
  15. ^ Developer, heise (26 April 2013). "Software AG kauft PaaS-Firma LongJump". heise.de.
  16. ^ "Software AG übernimmt alfabet". crn.de.
  17. ^ Developer, heise (17 June 2013). "Software AG kauft Apama".
  18. ^ "Software AG's Acquisition of JackBe Recognized as Strategic M&A Deal of the Year". Reuters. April 30, 2014. Archived from the original on May 17, 2014.
  19. ^ "Datameer Secures $19 Million to Meet Global Demand for Self-Service Big Data Analytics for Hadoop". 19 December 2013.
  20. ^ "Datameer Raises $19M As Market For Hadoop And Big Data Analytics Hits An Inflection Point".
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  27. ^ "Silver Lake secures 63% stake in Software AG after months-long pursuit". Reuters. 2023-06-29. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
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  29. ^ "Germany's Software AG starts probe into South Africa kickback reports". Reuters. 2017-07-25. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  30. ^ "Acquisitions by Software AG". tracxn.com. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  31. ^ TrendMiner (2018-06-12). "Software AG acquires Technology Scale-up TrendMiner for analysis and visualization of time series data". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved 2021-01-17.
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  33. ^ "Business Wire". www.businesswire.com. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
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  40. ^ "Software AG Buys Metismo To Expand Enterprise Mobile Offerings". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  41. ^ "Software AG acquires Swiss Swift specialist Teconomic". Finextra Research. 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
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  45. ^ "Software AG Acquires Streamsets". 8 March 2022.
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  47. ^ "Tamino 10.1". IBM.
  48. ^ "Magic Quadrant for Global Industrial IoT Platforms".
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  50. ^ "Software AG Tech Community". Software AG TECHcommunity. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  51. ^ "Software University Development, Offer Management Software". Software AG. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
  52. ^ "SOFTWARE AG". ERA Championship. Retrieved 2023-11-17.