Cases & Deals

SAP acquires Sybase for $5.8 billion

Client(s) SAP AG

Jones Day advised SAP in its $5.8 billion agreement to acquire Sybase, Inc., an enterprise software and services company. The transaction was funded from SAP's cash on hand and a €2.75 billion (US$3.4 billion) loan facility arranged and underwritten by Barclays Capital and Deutsche Bank. The Sybase board of directors unanimously approved the transaction.

Sybase will operate as a standalone unit and its management team will continue to run the business. SAP, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, is the world's largest business software company, with locations in more than 50 countries worldwide. It offers applications and services to companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries. With more than 97,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE. Sybase, an NYSE-listed company headquartered in Dublin, California, provides enterprise and mobile databases, software, and mobile messaging services across all major systems, networks, and devices to such data-intensive industries as financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, and government to ensure that customer information is securely managed and mobilized.

As a result of this transaction, customers will be able to better harness today's explosion of data and deliver information and insight in real time to business consumers. SAP's software and implementation partners can capture new opportunities by innovating on Sybase's market-leading mobile platform, which will make it easier to create, deliver, and securely manage mobile enterprise applications across major device types.

In addition to M&A work, Jones Day also provided antitrust, finance, IP, and employee benefits advice to SAP on this transaction.