SAP acquires cloud-based customer engagement platform provider Emarsys with Allen & Overy's assistance

With the acquisition of Emarsys, the Walldorf-based software group broadens its Customer Experience portfolio.  Emarsys enables businesses to engage more effectively and more personally with their customers.  Enhancing the SAP® Customer Experience portfolio with Emarsys’s platform will deliver to hyperpersonalised customer engagements in real time via all communication channels, such as e-mail, mobile devices, social networks, SMS and the internet, helping organisations ensure every engagement with their customers is relevant and impactful.  Emarsys offers an innovative and easy-to-use, fully integrated cloud-based marketing platform. 

Emarsys was founded in Vienna and currently operates from 13 offices around the world, including Berlin, Budapest, London, Indianapolis (US headquarters) and Sydney.  Emarsys is to become part of the SAP Customer Experience business unit.  Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval of authorities in several EU countries and the United States, and is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2020.  The parties agreed to keep the purchase price and other financial terms of the transaction confidential.  

The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Dr. Alexander Veith (Corporate/M&A) and comprised partners Dr. Ulrich Baumgartner (Data Protection, both Munich), Dr. Jens Matthes (IP, Düsseldorf), Markulf Behrendt (Employment & Benefits), Dr. Börries Ahrens (Antitrust, both Hamburg), Dr. Michael Ehret (Tax) and counsel Peter Wehner (Employment & Benefits, both Frankfurt). 

Also involved were senior associates Tobias Hugo (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Marc Christ (Tax, Frankfurt) and Dr. Marcus Mackensen (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), as well as associates Sören Burdinski (Antitrust), Merle Herrmann (Employment & Benefits) and Dr. Julia Pacha (Employment & Benefits, all Hamburg), Anna Kräling (IP, Düsseldorf), Hasan Kaya (Real Estate, Frankfurt), and Johannes Graßl (Corporate/M&A), Christine Kammermeier (Data Protection), Dr. Jörg Weber (Banking & Finance) and Transaction Officer Antonia Fichtner (all Munich). 

In addition, lawyers from the Allen & Overy offices in Bejing, Budapest, Istanbul, London, Moscow, New York, Paris, Perth, Singapore and Washington (D.C.) advised on this matter. 

Advice on Austrian law was provided by Eisenberger & Herzog, while Shearman & Sterling, with partner Daniel Mitz (San Francisco), advised in the United States.