SAP buys employee analytics specialist

SAP acquired analytics software company Pilot Software on February 14, the company announced Tuesday. The privately held company, based in Mountain View, Calif., produces PilotWorks, an application used for managing and measuring employees' goals and productivity. The software, which already works in conjunction with SAP products and platforms, uses analytics to help increase employee efficiency in the same way other SAP products use analytics for things like supply-chain management and enterprise resource planning, SAP said in a statement.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but SAP did say that Pilot employees would become part of the SAP Labs network. The acquisition is part of SAP's ongoing strategy to buy companies whose technology can be devloped into SAP products, according to a company statement. The purchase follows SAP's announcement in January that it would miss its target for licensing sales in 2006; that news caused the company's share price to fall. SAP also said at that time that it expected its margins to fall for 2007 due to investment in new companies, and that the company would be changing its revenues reporting on licensing sales.