SAP Says It Won't Make A Counterbid For BEA SystemsSAP Says It Won't Make A Counterbid For BEA Systems

SAP said it will not make a counterbid to acquire BEA Systems.

The United Kingdom's Financial Times reported Monday that SAP CEO Henning Kagermann said in an interview SAP would not make a counteroffer for BEA following Oracle's bid last week to buy the company for $6.7 billion. An SAP spokesman told information later Monday: "Yes, this statement is true and confirmed. SAP is not planning a counterbid for BEA."

SAP's name came up as a possible alternative suitor to BEA after it became clear that Oracle's bid wasn't particularly welcome across the company's board. Billionaire Carl Icahn, BEA's largest investor, has been pushing BEA to put itself up for sale. But just last month, BEA senior VP of investor relations Kevin Faulkner told attendees at a Bank of America investment conference in San Francisco that the company planned to remain independent to better serve customers.

BEA VP William Klein acknowledged Oracle's bid in written correspondence between the two companies made public last week, but rejected Oracle's bid as too low. As of Monday morning, Oracle and BEA were at a stalemate in the negotiations, with BEA having backed out of a meeting on Friday at which Oracle hoped to have a signed definitive agreement for the acquisition.

SAP's Kagermann told the Financial Times that there is too much overlap between SAP and BEA for an acquisition to make sense. It could also be a financially impossible feat to pull off, considering that SAP announced Oct. 7 it planned to acquire Business Objects for $6.8 billion.

Just two days later, Oracle president Charles Phillips fired off an offer letter to BEA Systems to acquire the company for $17 a share, or about $6.7 billion. Oracle's timing so soon after its archcompetitor disclosed plans to commit a large sum of money to the Business Objects acquisition may not have been coincidental.

"Just like in a war, you attack on one front when you see the opposing side send a bunch of its divisions to the other front," said Forrester Research analyst Mike Gilpin.