For almost half a billion US dollars: Teradata drops lawsuit against SAP

SAP has been able to settle a years-long legal dispute with US-based database and analytics specialist Teradata out of court. According to a statement from Teradata to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the companies have agreed to a settlement for which SAP will pay 480 million US dollars. After deducting all fees and expenses for the dispute, which has been ongoing since 2018, Teradata estimates that between 355 million and 362 million US dollars will remain before taxes.

The legal dispute, now settled, between the two companies originally stems from a Teradata lawsuit from June 2018, which was followed by further mutual lawsuits. Teradata accused SAP of stealing intellectual property for decades and exploiting its market power. According to the allegations, the German software group used a joint venture founded together in 2006 to gain access to Teradata's intellectual property. SAP's bundling of the HANA database with the S/4HANA ERP system was also a disadvantage to other providers and thus violated US competition law.

According to court documents, SAP struck back in 2019 with a patent lawsuit in the US. Teradata followed up in 2020 with a second lawsuit in the US, and SAP in 2021 with further patent infringement allegations. The dispute went through various instances; most recently, SAP failed at the Supreme Court of the United States with the motion to dismiss Teradata's lawsuit for violation of US antitrust law. A new court hearing on the matter was scheduled for April 2026.

(axk)