Oracle Zaps SAP

Oracle (ORCL-NASDAQ) has filed a multi-headed lawsuit against SAP (SAP-NYSE/ADR), its oldest independent pure-play competitor.  It accuses SAP of stealing potentially thousands of copyrighted software items and other confidential trade secrets and materials, so go ahead and throw in corporate espionage as well.

On March 22, 2007, Oracle filed a lawsuit in U.S. Federal District Court in the Northern District of California against SAP. Among the claims made against SAP are violations of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, Unfair Competition, Intentional and Negligent Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage and Civil Conspiracy.

Here is the full PDF link to the formal complaint out of Oracle.

More likely than not, you can expect either a countersuit or counterclaims or at least formal complaints to be filed in short order by SAP representatives.  At least that is what usually happens.  With all of the companies that Oracle has acquired it is probably not even possible to guess how many trade secrets have walked out the door in recent years.

SAP is now down almost 1% on the day at $45.95 (year low is $43.30) and ORCL is still up 1.5% at $18.45 (year high is $19.75).

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Jon C. Ogg
March 22, 2007