Staff cuts: SAP wants to cut 3,000 jobs

The big wave of layoffs in the tech industry started in the USA, and now it has also arrived here. Europe’s largest software manufacturer and DAX group SAP wants to cut jobs massively – also in Germany.

In view of the planned turn towards more profit, Europe’s largest software manufacturer SAP wants to make itself leaner and cut 3,000 jobs. This was announced by SAP CEO Christian Klein when the annual figures were presented. This corresponds to around 2.5 percent of the workforce. In Germany, 200 employees are said to be affected. Most of these savings are expected to materialize by 2024.

With the job cuts, SAP wants to focus on growth in the traditional area with software for enterprise management (ERP), said Klein. The cuts will come in other areas. The company wants to reduce the annual costs by 350 million euros with the step. In addition, SAP is considering selling its majority stake in the data analysis company Qualtrics.

SAP with a drop in profits

In the past financial year, the software manufacturer achieved its annual targets with a good final quarter in day-to-day business. Earnings before interest and taxes, adjusted for special effects, fell last year by two percent to 8.03 billion euros, as the DAX group announced.

Annual sales rose by a total of eleven percent to 30.9 billion euros, also thanks to the upturn in business with cloud software for use over the network. But without the weak euro, sales would have only increased by five percent. The bottom line is that net profit fell by a good two-thirds to 1.71 billion euros, mainly because risk participation in start-ups did not contribute as much valuation income as before.

At the start of trading, SAP shares fell 2.9 percent to EUR 102.92. Most recently, the paper was able to break away from the lows of last autumn, from sometimes below 80 euros it went up again to over 109 euros. Analyst Knut Woller from Baader Bank gave the group’s annual figures a little weaker than experts had expected. However, his assumption that current business will pick up again remains the same.