SAP CEO Christian Klein speaks at a panel session on day three of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.
Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SAP said in a statement on Tuesday that it aims to carry out voluntary buyouts or job changes for 8,000 employees as part of a 2024 restructuring program. But the German business software maker said its headcount should remain the same. SAP shares were up about 1% in extended trading.
The company is looking to reposition itself for faster revenue growth, in part from artificial intelligence. Total revenue grew 5% year over year in the fourth quarter.
SAP said it now expects 10 billion euros ($10.85 billion) in 2025 adjusted operating profit. That’s down 2 billion euros from its previous outlook because of share-based compensation, but up by 500 million euros thanks to planned efficiencies from the restructuring.
The company had about 108,000 full-time employees at the end of 2023. A year ago the company said it would get rid of 3,000 roles.
In 2023, SAP stock gained about 50% in value, its best performance since 2012, while the Nasdaq Composite index grew 43%.
CEO Christian Klein has been working to make SAP more cloud-centric, following similar shifts at Adobe, Microsoft and Oracle. Klein joined SAP in 1999. In 2019 he was named co-CEO with Jennifer Morgan to replace Bill McDermott, and in 2020 Klein became sole CEO. About 44% of SAP’s fourth-quarter revenue, totaling 8.47 billion euros, came from cloud services, up from 25% in 2019.
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