[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

SAP subsidiary, SAP America, has entered into an agreement to acquire Ariba, a cloud-based business commerce network, for $45.00 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $4.3 billion. The Ariba board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction.

The per share purchase price represents a 20 per cent premium over the May 21 closing price and a 19 per cent premium over the one month volume weighted average price per share.  The transaction will be funded from SAP’s free cash and a €2.4 billion term loan facility.  The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of calendar year 2012, subject to Ariba stockholder approval, clearances by relevant regulatory authorities and other customary closing conditions.  The transaction is expected to be accretive to SAP’s non-IFRS earnings per share in 2013.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Ariba has approximately 2,600 employees.  With $444 million in total revenue, Ariba experienced 38.5 per cent annual growth in 2011.  Its business network recorded 62 per cent organic growth in the same period.