SAP, the largest software company in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, is acquiring Israeli software company Gigya for $350 million in cash, theMarker reported Saturday. The deal has been signed and will be finalized within a few weeks.
Gigya leads the customer identity and access management (CIAM) market according to recent reports from Gartner and KuppingerCole.
The three founders of Gigia – Eyal Magen (VP of Strategy), Roly Eliazarov (President) and Eran Kutner (CEO), who hold 5% of the company, will receive $17 million each.
According to its website, Gigya helps companies turn unknown site visitors into known, loyal and engaged customers. More than 700 of the world’s leading enterprises, including 50% of the comScore top 100 US web properties such as Nike, NBC, and Dell, rely on Gigya to build identity-driven relationships with over 1.1 Billion customers while powering scalable, secure, privacy compliant customer identity management.
SAP has been operating in Israel since 1998, and has about 700 employees in its center in Ra’anana. A year ago, the giant company inaugurated a new building at Etgarim Park in the city, at a cost of $72 million. SAP also operates innovation laboratories in Israel.
Over the past two decades, SAP has acquired several Israeli companies, including, in 2001, Top Tier for $400 million, and, in 2002, Top Manage for just under $10 million.