SAP SAP SE

  By Patrick Costello 
 

BARCELONA--SAP SE's (SAP.XE) Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic on Friday dismissed concerns that it paid too much for Qualtrics, a U.S.-based startup that the German software company acquired just days before a planned initial public offering.

Mr. Mucic defended the $8 billion pricetag of the market analytics business as appropriate, saying the price is in line with similar acquisitions in the tech sector given Qualtrics's revenue multiples.

Qualtrics's canceled IPO was heavily oversubscribed and had been expected to generate proceeds of $6 billion, the CFO said.

"If you look at what we paid, it's not that much of an uplift," Mr. Mucic said at Morgan Stanley's telecoms and technology conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Mr. Mucic called the acquisition a "transformational strategic opportunity" that justified SAP's about-face on eschewing large-scale mergers and acquisitions, a position it has held for years.

SAP still expects to expand margins and post "double-digit" operating profit growth next year, even with the inclusion of Qualtrics, Mr. Mucic said.

The company will give more explicit guidance after the transaction with Qualtrics closes--likely early next year--and with its fourth-quarter earnings, he said.

Write to Patrick Costello at patrick.costello@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 16, 2018 09:06 ET (14:06 GMT)

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