Versata Software says SAP is acting like Microsoft, and that’s not a compliment as it complained to the European Commission that SAP A.G. illegally excluded it from selling to three fourths of the largest companies that use SAP’s enterprise software. Versata alleges SAP changed its interface and then withheld information necessary to let the systems interoperate and cloned Versata’s pricing Software, known as Pricer. The complaint continued that SAP bundled with cloned pricing software with its ERP product and that these actions violate Article 102 of the European Union treaty. Versata, based in Austin, Texas, asked the commission at a minimum to require SAP to provide interoperability information and unbundle its pricing configuration software and impose an appropriate fine. Versata’s filing cited a Microsoft case in which that company paid a fine of 1.6 billion euros and was forced to change its business practices by the commission. Last year, Versata, formerly known as Trilogy, was awarded $139 million by a U.S. District Court jury in Texas which found SAP had infringed on Versata patents when SAP built a clone of Versata’s software. Read more...

Infor said despite its acquisition of the ERP LN operations of Qurius, once a top Microsoft reseller in Europe, it remains committed to the channel. Qurius has been an Infor implementation partner, but under the deal Infor picks up the business and 60 staffers who will serve Infor’s ERP LN customers in Italy, Germany and Spain, all for around $5 million. Qurius, based in Belgium, continues as a Microsoft Dynamics VAR. Infor VP Dennis Michaelis said in a prepared statement that this move does not represent a strategic shift away from the use of channel partners. Read more...