SAP has acquired Askdata, a startup focused on search-driven analytics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This is technology M&A deal number 667 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.
SAP Acquires Askdata
SAP, founded in 1972, is based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company has 125,810 employees listed on LinkedIn. SAP’s areas of expertise include ERP, financials, business intelligence, procurement, HCM, SCM, business, planning, efficiency, sustainability, innovation, analytics, reporting and dashboarding.
Askdata, founded in 2019, is based in San Francisco, California. The company has 21 employees listed on LinkedIn. Askdata’s areas of expertise include artificial intelligence, augmented analytics, search-driven analytics and natural language processing.
Askdata’s technology is available in multiple languages and connects live to source applications without moving data. Askdata applies cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to natural language processing, which gives users the ability to answer any data question with a simple search, the company said.
With the acquisition of Askdata, SAP strengthens its capabilities in AI-driven natural language searches, according to the companies. Askdata’s IP will become part of SAP Business Technology Platform and contribute to a next-generation lightweight analytics experience for SAP Analytics Cloud solution customers and to line-of-business applications, according to SAP.
Irfan Khan, president and chief product officer, SAP HANA database and analytics, said:
“The data and analytics market is evolving, and it is imperative that we provide simpler user experiences that will empower casual users to be able to make data-driven decisions independently. The ability to cater to a wide range of user profiles will be the primary driver of data and analytics adoption. Askdata provides SAP with a path to lead this transition to the benefit of our customers.”
SAP's M&A Activity
Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the SAP partner ecosystem has remained relatively steady over the past three years or so. Key buyers have included global systems integrators, consulting giants and MSPs (managed IT service providers) like Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, Dimension Data, HCL, IBM and NTT Communications.
The goal, in many cases, involves a regional or talent land grab — designed to help end customers accelerate migrations from on-premises applications to cloud-based SAP options across ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), HANA and more. More recently, SAP partner M&A deals have also focused on supply chain security and application security expertise.
Here’s a few SAP partner ecosystem M&A deals that ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert have tracked in 2022:
- July 2022: GyanSys acquired SAP Ariba partner SouthEnd Group.
- May 2022: Codestone, backed by private equity firm FPE Capital, acquired Clarivos.
- May 2022: The Acacia Group acquired The Baer Group.
- April 2022: Wipro acquired Rizing from private equity firm One Equity Partners.
- April 2022: NTT DATA Business Solutions acquired Business Services & Technologies.
- February 2022: VistaVu Solutions acquired ResolvIT SC.
- January 2022: VistaVu Solutions acquired R Tech Solutions.
SAP itself acquired cloud marketing and engagement platform Emarsys in October 2020 and SurveyMonkey rival Qualtrics in an $8 billion deal in November 2018.
