SAP TomorrowNow chief resigns; unit may be for sale

Software maker SAP AG has said the chief executive officer of its TomorrowNow unit Andrew Nelson — accused by Oracle of stealing program codes — has resigned.
The company may sell the business at the centre of the dispute.

Nelson will leave with several members of his management team, a SAP statement has said. Mark White, appointed as the unit''s executive chairman in July, will remain in that role.

Oracle sued SAP in March, claiming workers at SAP''s TomorrowNow unit hacked into a secure website and stole Oracle''s software codes. SAP, which leads Oracle in the market for software that companies use to manage functions such as inventory and payroll, admitted in July that some of its employees had made "inappropriate" downloads of support documents.

SAP said it is considering "several options" for TomorrowNow, including a sale. The company bought the unit in 2005 for an undisclosed sum, immediately after Oracle purchased PeopleSoft.

SAP bought TomorrowNow as a way to lure Oracle''s PeopleSoft customers. Nelson, a former PeopleSoft executive, founded TomorrowNow in 1998. In its lawsuit, Oracle said TomorrowNow used identities of Oracle customers and phoney users to gain access to its systems. SAP CEO Henning Kagermann has denied SAP had access to Oracle''s intellectual property.