CEO of German business software group SAP steps down

Bill McDermott, the American chief executive of massive German business software maker SAP, will quit after a decade in charge, the company said Friday.

McDermott "has decided not to renew his contract and is stepping down from his position," SAP said in a statement, adding that he will be replaced by board members Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-chief executives.

The company did not give a reason for the longtime chief's sudden departure. He joined the software maker in 2002, climbing to the executive board in 2008 and serving as CEO since 2010.

"Every CEO dreams of handing an exceptionally strong company to its next generation... now we start the next chapter," McDermott tweeted.

SAP said the veteran executive "will remain in an advisory capacity until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition".

His contract had originally been slated to run until 2021.

"SAP would not be what it is today without Bill McDermott," supervisory board chairman Hasso Plattner said.

He singled out for praise SAP's transition from selling traditional software licenses to subscriptions to cloud computing services, "which will fuel our growth for many years to come".

A member of the DAX blue-chip index on the Frankfurt stock market, SAP boasts a market capitalisation of almost 130 billion euros (USD 143 billion).

In third-quarter results released ahead of schedule Friday, the group reported 13 percent year-on-year growth in revenue, to 6.8 billion euros.

Net profit grew 30 per cent compared with July-September 2018, to 1.3 billion euros.