Oracle’s original complaint was one of those legal salvos that had the ring of truth … and now SAP has confirmed that suspicion by copping to having swiped Oracle documents.
Of course, SAP doesn’t use the word “swiped” and its confession comes riddled with caveats.
Bloomberg reports:
SAP AG, the world’s largest maker of business-management software, said it made “inappropriate” downloads of Oracle Corp. code, responding to a lawsuit that claims the German company stole programs from the competitor.
“We regret very much that this occurred,” SAP Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann said on a conference call today. “Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable.” SAP, whose shares fell as much as 2.6 percent today, denied it had access to Oracle’s intellectual property.
You see it was a matter of an overzealous business unit and the stolen goods never really made it to SAP and, well, you get the idea.
SAP said its Bryan, Texas-based TomorrowNow unit, which provides software support to clients, was authorized to download materials from Oracle’s Web site on behalf of TomorrowNow customers. The unit made “some inappropriate” downloads of fixes and support documents, SAP said.
I’d have paid good money to see Larry Ellison’s reaction when he heard about this.
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