SAP CEO speaks about the economy's affect on his business at CEBIT trade show. HANOVER, Germany, March 4 (Reuters) - Business software
maker SAP is not immune to effects of a financial
crisis spreading from the United States but does not expect any
sustained decline in software demand, its chief executive said.
Henning Kagermann told journalists at the CeBIT information
technology fair the situation was harder now than a year ago but
that there had been no recent, significant worsening of demand.
"It can always happen. We can't say we're immune," he said
on Tuesday when questioned about the company's repeated argument
that its software is needed even in hard times by companies
under pressure to save money.
"Since the middle of last year, the eagerness of U.S.
managers to make spending decisions has been less," he said.
"But I don't believe growth will slow over a long period."
Kagermann added that increasing weakness of the dollar
versus the euro did not fundamentally affect SAP's
business, as it has a large degree of natural hedging, but it
did have a psychological effect as it made growth look slower.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)
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