The Rise of SAP AG

SAP continued to grow in 1988 with the international sales network strengthened by the establishment of subsidiaries in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the US. Other events included: the founding of SAP Consulting GmbH as a joint project between SAP and the consulting firm Arthur Andersen; the opening of an International Training Center in Walldorf; and the welcoming of Dow Chemical as SAP's 1,000th customer. However, the most significant events of the year were the increase of SAP's capital stock from DM 5 million to DM 60 million, the subsequent conversion of SAP GmbH into a stock corporation, SAP AG, and the flotation of SAP shares on the stock market. SAP shares were quoted on the securities exchanges in Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

During the next year, 1989, SAP shares began trading on the Zurich stock exchange. SAP expanded its alliance and strategic cooperation approaches by taking a majority investment in TOS GmbH in Freiberg. Through the "International User Conference" in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the first "SAPPHIRE" user conference in North America, SAP demonstrated its solid commitment to direct international customer contact. This crucial commitment was to become more and more important to SAP's success in the coming years.

SAP (International) soon grew to twelve subsidiaries, including Canada, Singapore and Australia. SAP's growing profile in 1989 was evidenced by a number of events: the large number of participants attending the first Annual Stockholders' Meeting, the strong employee growth to more than 1,000, and the expansion of the customer base. Recognizing this success manager magazine named SAP "Company of the Year" – a distinction SAP would receive twice more in the next few years.

In 1990, SAP's capital stock expanded to DM 85 million with the issue of preference shares. SAP strengthened its commitment to small- and medium-sized businesses by an investment in the software company Steeb and the acquisition of software vendor CAS. In the same year, SAP and Siemens Nixdorf founded SRS GmbH in Dresden, gaining a firm foothold in the East German market. Sales grew strongly to over DM 500 million, and the number of staff grew to 1,700.