German business software supplier SAP has bought the
privately held software company A2i, in an effort to broaden the
data management capabilities of its NetWeaver
platform.
A2i develops and markets xCat, a platform for product content
management and cross-media catalogue publishing.
One of its most popular products, the Data ManagementA2i xCat,
is an enterprise-class catalogue system designed to allow a user to
easily build, structure and query very large catalogues.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed by the
company.
SAP intends to take A2i's xCat suite and blend it into NetWeaver
as SAP Master Data Management (SAP MDM). The updated product will
be available to users either late in the third quarter or in the
fourth quarter of this year, SAP said.
Improvements that the A2i technology to the NetWeaver product
will include improved support for product content management, more
powerful data aggregation, improved web-based electronic catalogues
and new functions such as high-performance search, image and
document management and print catalogue publishing.
A2i's president, Paul Weinberg said the company's operations in
the US and Israel will continue in the same facilities, but will
now be part of SAP Labs.
Laura Rohde writes for IDG News Service