The company said 2012 was its best year ever, the fourth quarter the best quarter ever and that its Hana in memory database technology was the fastest growing product in the history of enterprise software. “We are now No 1 in each category or the fastest growing [in that category],” said Co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe. Just to add a few more superlatives, McDermott said the Americas had the best year ever and that SAP sold more than $1 billion in software and related services in the region for the first time in the quarter. Now for the numbers: after-tax profit fell to about $3.76 billion, down 18 percent from the prior year while revenue grew to about $21.6 billion, up 14 percent from 2011. Operating profit was down 17 percent, largely because of a 30-percent rise in operating expenses. There were some major acquisitions charges since SAP purchased both Ariba and Success Factors during the year while it also continued hiring. The employee count grew by 8,700 over 2011 with more than 4,800 of these jobs added by acquisition. Did I mentioned it was SAP's best year?