SAP sales miss target

Germany's SAP missed its own forecast for fourth-quarter licence sales, as growth slowed in the United States.

The software maker said Thursday that fourth-quarter licence sales--which are key to future service and maintenance revenue--were about 1.26 billion euros ($1.63 billion), less than the 1.35 billion euros average forecast in a Reuters poll of 23 analysts.

For all of 2006, licence sales grew 11 percent, or 13.5 percent in constant currency. That's far short of the goal the company set of 15 percent to 17 percent in constant-currency growth.

SAP gave no reason in its preliminary results statement for the weaker performance. The company, the world's biggest maker of business software, faces increasingly fierce competition from U.S.- based archrival Oracle.

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