SAP Is Close To Toppling

It has always been a nice tradition for the SAP CEO to deliver a speech on the first day of the Annual Congress of the German-speaking SAP user group DSAG. Some nice anecdotes are still told in the community. For example, in the first year of his tenure, former CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe delivered the keynote in English. At the end of his talk, Snabe announced to enthusiastic applause that he wanted to learn German and would then give his keynote next year in the visitors’ native language. And that’s exactly what he did.

There seems to be no longer such respect for DSAG members. We do not know why Christian Klein, as CEO of SAP, is sending Thomas Saueressig in his stead. Malicious rumors claim that he will not be SAP CEO for much longer and that he has already mentally stepped down. The fact is that SAP is on the brink of collapse.

Juergen Roeder, financial editor at German newspaper Handelsblatt since 2001, agrees. He published the following on SAP this week: “The long-term price picture for the DAX heavyweight is very explosive. The SAP share is currently focused on the important support zone around 95 euros, which was not undershot even during the Corona crash in mid-March. Today, Wednesday, the share is trading at 85.35 euros, down 0.2 percent. If the stock doesn’t soon recover above 95 euros, SAP’s entire upward trend of the past twenty years threatens to topple.” It is not a pretty picture for Hasso Plattner when, in the fiftieth year of his company’s existence, he must slowly be realizing that the past twenty years have been misguided. This includes not only Bill McDermott’s reign, but also Hana, S/4, and Christian Klein.

Because SAP CFO Luka Mucic was not allowed to lead and save the ERP company, there will be a new CFO from next year onward: Dominik Asam comes from Airbus, where he was also CFO. He has had a very interesting and successful career and will join SAP with a lot of experience. It would hardly be surprising if Hasso Plattner were to appoint him as the new CEO overnight. Christian Klein has other career plans – similar to Luka Mucic. What will then happen to the share price is uncertain: optimists see the price rise well above 100 euros, pessimists see the price plummet to well below 85 euros.