HANOVER, Germany, March 4 (Reuters) – Business softwaremaker SAP is not immune to effects of a financialcrisis spreading from the United States but does not expect anysustained decline in software demand, its chief executive said.
Henning Kagermann told journalists at the CeBIT informationtechnology fair the situation was harder now than a year ago butthat there had been no recent, significant worsening of demand.
"It can always happen. We can’t say we’re immune," he saidon Tuesday when questioned about the company’s repeated argumentthat its software is needed even in hard times by companiesunder 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 dollarversus the euro did not fundamentally affect SAP’sbusiness, as it has a large degree of natural hedging, but itdid have a psychological effect as it made growth look slower.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)
? Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
