(This story was updated Monday, February 8, 2010, at 9:50 a.m.)
SAP AG said Sunday that Leo Apotheker, who became sole chief executive of the business software company last May, has resigned, effective immediately.
SAP did not give a reason for the resignation, other than to say that the company’s Supervisory Board had reached an agreement with Apotheker, a 20-year SAP veteran, not to renew his contract as a member of SAP’s Executive Board.
Named to replace Apotheker in an action that reinstates a dual-CEO structure at SAP were William R. McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe. McDermott is a former head of U.S. operations who replaced Apotheker as head of worldwide field operations last April. Snabe was head of product development. Both are new members of the Executive Board, which runs SAP on a day-to-day basis.
SAP made a point of saying that Hasso Plattner, SAP co-founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the company, will play an active role with the new co-CEOs.
Plattner briefed the press and analysts on a conference call Monday morning and thanked Apotheker for his service, without revealing the rationale for the CEO's departure. Plattner credited Apotheker and his predecessor, Henning Kagermann, for adjusting SAP to challenging times.
"They had the guts and the nerves to prepare a strategy and execute a strategy ... that SAP wasn't used to," Plattner said, referring to the belt-tightening prompted by the global recession. He said suspicions that the struggles of SAP's on demand Business ByDesign product had contributed to Apotheker's exit were "just wrong," and that, on the contrary, Apotheker had positioned the SaaS product for market success in 2010 and beyond.
“The new setup of the SAP Executive Board will allow SAP to better align product innovation with customer needs,” said Plattner, in a prepared statement. The new leadership team will continue to drive forward SAP’s strategy and focus on profitable growth, and will deliver its innovations in 2010 to expand SAP’s leadership of the business software market.”
Apotheker succeeded Kagermann, who was a co-CEO, last May.
Industry observers speculated that Apotheker’s sudden departure was related to a number of factors, including his management style and issues with such policies as software maintenance contract pricing, a change that provoked a storm of customer protest when it was announced last summer.