Responding to a lawsuit filed by Oracle earlier this year, SAP admitted on Tuesday that its TomorrowNow division in the U.S. made some "inappropriate downloads" from an Oracle Web site but said SAP never had access to the material.

In an about face from his previous position, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann also said Tuesday that his company is open to a possible settlement with Oracle, which has charged SAP with "corporate theft on a grand scale."

TomorrowNow was authorized to download materials from Oracle's Web site on behalf of customers, SAP said, but acknowledged that there were some inappropriate downloads of software patches and support documents. SAP announced new oversights at TomorrowNow, including the appointment of a new executive chairman, to avoid such problems in the future.

"Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective," Kagermann said in a statement. "We regret very much that this occurred."

The downloads on behalf of customers, which happened in late 2006, were for materials that customers lacked licenses for, Kagermann said at a press conference.

Kagermann did not rule out the possibility of firing TomorrowNow employees for the downloads, but he said there are currently no plans to do so. "We will do what it takes to stay 100 percent pure," he said.

SAP disputes most of Oracle's allegations, he added. "We believe just downloading support materials is not harm to a company," he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for documents related to the case from SAP and TomorrowNow, SAP said, and the companies will cooperate with the request.

Oracle filed its surprise lawsuit against SAP on March 22. It alleged that TomorrowNow staff hacked into a support Web site for users of Oracle's PeopleSoft and JD Edwards applications and downloaded vast amounts of content, which SAP then used to offer Oracle customers cut-rate support services.

SAP had until midnight Pacific Time on Monday night to file its response in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, which is hearing the case, and filed the documents shortly before the deadline.

SAP will consider all options in the Oracle case including a possible settlement, Kagermann said in a conference call Tuesday. That marks an abrupt turnaround from April, when Kagermann said during the company's quarterly earnings call: "We have no intention to settle; why should we?"

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.