SAP issues shock warning

German software giant SAP sent shivers through European stock markets with news it will miss revenue predictions for 2002.
The company blamed customers cancelling orders at the last minute for the five or 10 per cent loss in sales.
During a conference call, Hasso Plattner, joint CEO of SAP, said confidence in the US and Europe was low in the wake of Enron and WorldCom, and that many of its customers were reneging on verbally agreed contracts.
"We've lost a significant number, double digits, of deals at the eleventh hour," he said.
Instead of the predicted 15 per cent rise in sales, the company is now forecasting growth of only five or 10 per cent.
Sales in the company's normal European strongholds rose a mere one per cent while sales in the US plunged 12 per cent. SAP will post a net loss of E235m ($232m).
However, Plattner said the company still intended on reaching its operating margins of at least 21 per cent by freezing recruitment and slashing marketing and development budgets.