E-commerce software maker SAP will need to almost double its number of employees to as many as 45,000 to meet analysts' sales forecasts for 2004, one of its top executives said Thursday. . Co-Chief Hasso Plattner defended that goal and said more than its 23,000 workers were necessary to reach it. Look at Siebel, Oracle and i2. Oracle said in March it would cut as much as 2 percent of its work force, and Siebel said last month it laid off about 10 percent of its staff during the first quarter.
Analysts expect more layoffs to come.
Walldorf, Germany-based SAP reiterated its forecasts for the current year of slightly more than 23 percent sales growth in the first nine months and an operating margin of as much as 16 percent in the same period. That reduces the voting power of SAP's founders, including Kagermann and Plattner, to 39 percent from 63 percent. The abnormal price jump of the ordinary shares after we announced our intentions shows that the common shares were being held back by the preferred shares. The change is effective Thursday. The 131.7 million preferred shares will all be converted, amounting to a total of 314.7 million ordinary shares.