SAP said last night that the SAP Supervisory Board has reached a mutual agreement with CEO Léo Apotheker not to extend his contract as a member of the SAP Executive Board. Léo Apotheker has resigned as CEO and member of the SAP Executive Board effective immediately.
The SAP Executive Board, in agreement with the SAP Supervisory Board, has appointed two Co-CEOs: Bill McDermott, head of field organization and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development, both already members of the SAP Executive Board.
In addition, Vishal Sikka, Chief Technology Officer, has been appointed to the SAP Executive Board. At the request of the SAP Supervisory Board, Hasso Plattner, Co-Founder of SAP and Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board, will continue to play a strong role in advising the new leaders on technology and product development.
In a brusque one line statement, SAP said "The SAP Supervisory Board thanks Léo Apotheker for his enormous contribution to the success of SAP, which he joined more than 20 years ago, and wishes him all the best for the future."
Talking to FSN, Thomas Otter, research director at Gartner, said he was not entirely surprised by the announcement. "Although Apotheker had not been in the job long, SAP had suffered a couple of poor quarters under his management and he had not been good at articulating SAP's long term strategy."
"The new Enterprise Support maintenance agreement had also not been well communicated and caused customer dissatisfaction. The final straw I beleive was the feedback from an employee survey, leaked in the German press, which alarmed the Supervisory Board," added Otter.
At a press comference earlier this week, SAP's Chairman said - "There has been loss of trust between different groups within the company. Management is committed to changing position as rapidlyas possible. We want to make the company happy again"
