SAP Cuts U.S. Sales ForceSAP Cuts U.S. Sales Force

BERLIN (AP) -- SAP AG, the biggest maker of business-management software, cut 88 jobs from its U.S. sales force as part of a shake-up of its flagging American business, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The German company also fired another 44 U.S. salespeople, but they will be replaced, spokesman Markus Berner said. It employed about 3,500 people in the U.S. at the end of 2001.

The move was the first notable head-count reduction at SAP, which has refrained from cutting staff despite the slowdown in the software market.

It also was the first significant move by the German company's new North American division chief, former Siebel Systems Inc. executive Bill McDermott, brought in three months ago to improve its performance in the world's largest software market.

SAP has struggled with its sales strategy and the turnover of its top management in the United States.

U.S. revenue stagnated in the third quarter at 464 million euros (about $464 million), while revenue in its home German market grew 11% to 413 million euros (about $413 million).

The job cuts come from reorganizing SAP's U.S. sales force along regional lines after McDermott abandoned the previous industry-based focus, Berner said.