According to an article in Bloomberg, SAP is purchasing Business Objects for 4.8 Billion Euros. This is 20% above the per-share price on 10/5 which is already up almost 5%. According to the article:

“Business Objects shares rose 4.7 percent on Sept. 17 after Le Figaro reported the company hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to find a buyer.”

This is considered a friendly takeover so it will remain to be seen how this affects the product line. The general opinion is that it is a good fit. But according to an article in Euro2Day this represents:

“a clear departure from its longstanding strategy to grow only by organic growth”