Where TomorrowNow goes from here
Embroiled in controversy, SAP's third-party maintenance and support company TomorrowNow is facing challenging days ahead. — SAP disclosed late Monday that its TomorrowNow subsidiary had inappropriately downloaded Oracle's proprietary software.
Context & Ripple Effects
The disclosure lands at a delicate moment for SAP: the company had just reshuffled its executive board in March 2007, naming Leo Apotheker Deputy CEO, and now its US subsidiary stands accused by its arch-rival. On the same day, SAP confirmed that its TomorrowNow unit made inappropriate downloads from Oracle while insisting SAP itself never accessed the material — an admission that converts Oracle's lawsuit from a contested claim into a partially conceded one.
The story travelled fast: Forbes picked up SAP CEO's complaint that he was 'disappointed' Oracle did not come to him before suing, and eWEEK framed it flatly as SAP admitting to the claims in the suit. That split framing — contrition on the facts, grievance about process — defines how SAP will have to manage both the courtroom and its customer base.
First-order effects
- TomorrowNow's third-party maintenance business — which supports Oracle-owned product lines — now operates under an admitted-inappropriate-downloads cloud, putting its existing support contracts and pipeline at immediate risk.
- SAP's legal position shifts from defense to damage control: with the downloads conceded, the remaining fight is over scope and intent, and Oracle gains leverage in setting the terms of engagement.
Second-order effects
- Customers using TomorrowNow to cut maintenance costs on legacy Oracle products must weigh whether the discount is worth association with a subsidiary under litigation, pushing some back toward vendor-supported channels.
- Oracle can weaponize the admission commercially, casting doubt on SAP's stewardship of acquired businesses and pressing the espionage framing — already echoed in coverage like Engadget's corporate-espionage characterization — across enterprise buyers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mega-vendor rivalry in enterprise software increasingly plays out through IP litigation rather than product competition alone, raising the compliance bar for any acquirer operating a rival-facing services arm.
- The third-party maintenance industry itself faces structural scrutiny: its model depends on deep access to the original vendor's software and documentation, and one admitted breach gives every primary vendor a template argument for restricting independent support.
The trend: Enterprise software competition is migrating from feature and price wars into courtroom battles over intellectual property and data access, with subsidiaries and acquisitions becoming liability vectors for their parents.