SAP bows out

Oracle is to acquire Retek at a price of $11.25 for each outstanding Retek share after its German competitor SAP dropped out of the bidding.

The news comes after a month of fierce fighting for the control of the software provider.

It was only last month that SAP’s North American subsidiary, SAP America, signed a ‘definitive merger agreement’ with Retek that would have brought together one of the largest business software providers with the leading provider of software to the retail industry.

The Retek board of directors approved the definitive merger agreement and said it unanimously recommended to its stockholders that they accept the SAP offer of $8.50 per share.

Enter Oracle. Oracle purchased 5.5 million shares of Retek common stock, representing nearly 10% of total shares outstanding. And then said that it was going to make a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Retek at $9 per share – $0.50 a share higher than the SAP offer.

SAP then increased its tender offer for the company to $11 per share to fight off the Oracle bid. But this was not good enough. Last week, Oracle upped the ante to $11.25 and now looks set to take over the company.