SAP announced the resignation of Bill McDermott from the position of CEO — after a decade at the helm of the Germany-based business software supplier.
Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein, who are currently board members, will become co-CEOs with immediate effect.
SAP implemented a co-CEO structure in 2010, tapping Bill McDermott and then head of product development, Jim Hagemann Snabe, to replace Leo Apotheker, who went on to become CEO of Hewlett Packard. Jim Hagemann Snabe stepped down in 2014, leaving Bill McDermott to be the sole chief of SAP.
SAP also announced that its revenue will grow 13 percent to €6.79 billion in the third quarter of 2019.
SAP in a statement said Bill McDermott, 58, has decided not to renew his contract and is stepping down from his position as chief executive officer.
SAP said Bill McDermott, who joined SAP in 2002, made invaluable contributions to the company and he was a main driver of SAP’s transition to the cloud.
SAP revealed that the company has made a decision over a year ago to expand roles of Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein, as part of a long-term process, to develop them as next generation of leaders.
Jennifer Morgan, who joined SAP in 2004, most recently served as president of SAP’s Cloud Business Group, overseeing Qualtrics, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur.
Christian Klein, who started his career at SAP two decades ago as a student, most recently served as the company’s chief operating officer, also overseeing product development for the flagship ERP solution, SAP S/4HANA.
SAP, under Bill McDermott, made several key acquisitions to push the company into new markets, CNBC reported. SAP purchased software developer Qualtrics for $8 billion a year ago. SAP bought expense management software provider Concur for $8.3 billion, HR software company SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and Callidus, a developer of sales performance management tools, for $2.4 billion.
SAP revenue
SAP said it added more than 500 customers for SAP S/4HANA taking the total number of customers to more than 12,000.
Cloud revenue grew 37 percent to €1.79 billion. Cloud and software revenue grew 12 percent to €5.63 billion. Cloud gross margin increased 5.9 percentage points to 64.5 percent. SAP’s operating profit increased 36 percent to €1.68 billion. Operating margin rose 4.2 percentage points to 24.7 percent.
