SAP
German software producer
SAP SE (; German pronunciation: [ɛsʔaːˈpeː] ), is a German multinational software company based in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, that is the world's largest vendor of enterprise software. In June 2025, it was the largest European company by market capitalization, as well as one of the 30 most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.
Founded in 1972 by five former IBM engineers it now has offices in 78 countries and 110,000 employees. It ranks in the top 10 of publicly traded software companies and is the largest in Europe.
SAP is a component of the DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 stock market indices.
History
20th century
When Xerox exited the computer hardware manufacturing industry in 1971, it asked IBM to migrate its business systems to IBM technology. As part of IBM's compensation for the migration, IBM was given the rights to the Scientific Data Systems (SDS)/SAPE software repository. Five IBM engineers from the AI department (Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, Hans-Werner Hector, Hasso Plattner, and Claus Wellenreuther, all from Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg) were working on an enterprise-wide system based on this software, only to be told that it would no longer be necessary. Rather than abandoning the project, they decided to leave IBM Tech and start another company. In June 1972 they founded the SAP Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung ("System Analysis and Program Development" / "SAPD") company, as a private partnership under the German Civil Code.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “SAP” is german software producer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through German, software and producer, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “german software producer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q552581. VIAF identifies the subject as 157404258. The Library of Congress control number is no96014747. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025, 1972 and 1971.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “SAP” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.