SAP AG, Europe's biggest software maker, will again dominate the business software applications market this year while rival Oracle Corp will see its market share slip, an industry report predicted on Friday. AMR Research said it also expected SAP to take the top spot this year in the hotly contested North American business software market. SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, has long been the world's dominant maker of software applications that operate and automate business processes such as payroll and tracking inventory.
California-based Oracle, following its $10.6 billion purchase of rival software vendor PeopleSoft in January, is hoping to undercut SAP's position by selling its business software applications with its flagship database software, which has long been the market leader and the bulk of Oracle's business.
AMR predicted SAP would have 43 percent market share in 2005, while Oracle will have 19 percent, down slightly from the combined Oracle and PeopleSoft revenue in 2004, AMR said.
It also predicted SAP would win in North America.
"Recent quarterly trends indicate that SAP will assume the leadership position in 2005. SAP's revenue base has been rapidly shifting from Europe to North America," the group said.
Oracle and PeopleSoft as independent companies had combined revenue for North America that was larger than SAP in 2004, but that is unlikely to hold in 2005, AMR said.
"In software mergers, one plus one often results in a number less than two," AMR said.
In 2005, the top five companies will account for 74 percent of the industry's revenue. In 1999, the top five business software makers stood at 59 percent of total sales, AMR said.
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