IBM and SAP spell unholy alliance for rivals

SAP looks set to enter into an ebusiness alliance with computing giant IBM.

Under the terms of the partnership, IBM's system integration unit will use SAP as the favoured provider of ebusiness solutions for its customers. IBM for its part will collect a share of revenue created as well as supplementary business from SAP such as application hosting. The deal will come as bad news for SAP's rivals i2 and Ariba, who had both previously partnered IBM in a B2B alliance last March. Both now look likely to suffer a fall in sales as IBM puts the squeeze on their market share. According to the Financial Times, the deal with IBM will be announced at SAP's annual user conference in Florida on 13 June, though at the time of publication SAP could not confirm this. For related news see:
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