No clear sign of settlement in Oracle-SAP suit
A document filed last week by SAP indicates there may be no quick settlement to its rancorous legal entanglement with rival enterprise software maker Oracle, even though SAP admits that some of Oracle's claims about its former subsidiary TomorrowNow are true.
It has been speculated that Oracle is willing to keep the suit alive simply for the perceived public relations benefit.
In contrast, there is no "upside for SAP in this litigation hanging around," Goldman said. "They don't look good. They might not look bad, but they don't look good."
Jon Reed, an independent analyst who monitors SAP skills trends and runs the Web site JonERP.com, compared the suit to a "high-stakes poker game."
"Oracle has the better hand this time around. If you use the poker analogy, knowing that shouldn't you just fold your hand?" he said.
However, "the thing about this stuff is that you can't just expect logic to dictate behavior, because personalities and egos get involved," he added.
In paying out a settlement to its bitter rival, SAP executives would have to take a hit to their pride, as well as allow Oracle the "marketing juice" it would gain from such an outcome, he said.
However, "maybe they're so far away on the [settlement] numbers that sanity has to prevail on one side or another," Reed added.
