SAP Sends Warning for Software Earnings With Forecast

  • German software company cut revenue forecast for full year
  • Covid lockdowns will hurt demand through first half of 2021

SAP’s results have threatened the assumption that tech companies should prosper, due to millions of employees working from home.

Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg
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Dire earnings results at SAP SE wiped out more than 35 billion euros ($41 billion) from the German software company’s market value in a matter of minutes, sending a warning to tech investors about the health of the business software industry.

In a surprise release late Sunday, SAP, one of Europe’s largest tech companies, cut its revenue forecast for the full year and said it expected the fresh wave of Covid-19 lockdowns to hurt demand through the first half of 2021. The results caused shares to fall the most ever in a single day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg since 1989.