SAP gaining market share from rivals

SAP, the business software maker, said it was gaining market share from competitors, including archrival Oracle, afterwards reporting a strong set of second-quarter results that buoyed its shares for a second day.

Once considered a to put it more exactly staid provider of enterprise software that helps companies run more efficiently, SAP is betting that mobile, cloud computing and in-memory computing - a new way to quickly analyse large amounts of business data - will help it gain ground on its rivals.

Mr Snabe said SAP was targeting €100m in earnings for mobility and in-memory computing this year. "This is quite significant given they were first launched as an idea and delivered to the market at the end of last year," he said.

Rajeev Bahl, analyst at Matrix Capital Partners, said: "Mobility products are the most significant forthwith. It allows SAP to sweep up business that would if not go to others. It as well extends the reach of SAP in businesses. On average just 23 per cent of employees in a company would come into contact with SAP software. Mobility takes that much furthermore."

Larry Elisson, Oracle's founder, once infamously described in-memory innovation as "wacko, ridiculous, complete nonsense".

But SAP insists it is now answering its critics. "The pipeline for in-memory computing is the fastest pipeline growth in our history," said Mr Snabe.

"We have by all means proved [the critics] wrong - you are seeing many companies in the industry desperately acquiring small companies that have any flavour of in-memory computing in their portfolio," he added.

SAP raised its full-year revenues and revenue guidance late on Tuesday, causing its shares to jump 3.6 per cent. The share gained a furthermore 1.6 per cent on Wednesday, on a day when most German blue chips lost ground.