Under pressure, SAP shuts down Russian operations SAP announced on Tuesday it was exiting Russia after 30 years of operations in the country, leaving on-prem customers with no software support. “Our hearts and hopes are with the people of Ukraine. More than anything, we want this war to end,” the German software giant declared, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin's …
It's surreal that Germany won't provide tech support to Russia while still buying it's oil and gas.
It's hard to picture what criteria will allow SAP et al to go back in - the end of the war, the death of Putin, reparations and criminal trials? Tax payers have to pay for the maintenance of the super yachts we've seized, we should at least get to take them for a spin.
I don't think this war will be over by 'victory day' on the 9th of May. Well, not this 9th of May at least. I remember the 'Iranian Hostage Crisis' which US media expected to be short lived, so they prefaced every broadcast with, "Day 4 of the hostage crisis", "Day 14 of the hostage crisis". The American public was sick and bored of it by day 444, and grateful to Reagan for cutting a side deal with their enemy to keep the hostages until he was elected.
Well, to be fair, it's a bit easier to remove tech support than a country-wide dependency on hydrocarbons. ;) One involves a major reworking and re-resourcing of critical national infrastructure by dedicated specialists, the other just involves not picking up the phone and binning support tickets (so, lack-of-service as usual, then, in my experience of this particular vendor... ;) )
It will be interesting to see how many Western businesses will dip a toe back into Russian waters once all this is over. One has to think that having been badly bitten once, they may be reluctant to gamble again.
"It will be interesting to see how many Western businesses will dip a toe back into Russian waters once all this is over. ".
Each and everyone without any doubt if there is business to do, however, being dependent on Russia is a totally different matter and I think responsibility regarding that should lie with governments not companies alone.
I still think a great majority of Russians would like Russia to develop into a decent prosperous democracy, but I am also well aware of the Finnish experience with Russia during hundreds of years and the old saying - " a Russian is a Russian even if you fry him in butter".
Some knowledge of fried fish is needed to understand that.
Regarding the ridiculous finger pointing about Russian energy lets not forget that had it been the cheapest choice for say Britain then it would be used without any doubt.
It will be interesting to see how many Western businesses will dip a toe back into Russian waters once all this is over. One has to think that having been badly bitten once, they may be reluctant to gamble again.
Do you really think they'll be *allowed* back on the russian market when things cool down again?
When Poetin came to power, he nationalised businesses critical to the economy.
He'll probably be doing the same for any company that left, if their function is critical enough. Most of the staff of those companies that have a local presence will probably be russians who are capable of keeping the lights on while servicing their local customers.
The only thing that will probably happen is that western companies lose marketshare on the russian market in the long run and will never be able to regain that market share, because it's already taken over.
Foot, meet 12 gauge...
Right, that's why inflation in US and EU is rising rapidly, while the Ruble bounced back with a month.
We're goimg to see severe shortages and price increases.
Only last week, the official inflation rate in the Netherlands clocked in just under 12% (which means the real rate is higher).
The US and EU are fscked and our leaders did this by being shitty shallow idiots who know have usually no discernable skills aside from being electable.
Gazprom has been sanctioned, but Gazprombank is still on SWIFT so that Germany can buy from Gazprom. Germany boosted it's defence spending by a billion euros this year, they could have used that cash to buy oil and gas elsewhere.
And pity poor Finland discussing whether they join NATO, they get 90% of their gas from Russia. Finland is colder than Aberdeen, though not as cold as eastern Ukraine.
"Finland discussing whether they join NATO, they get 90% of their gas from Russia. ".
Oil import will end this summer and luckily Finland is next only to France in the percentage of electricity from nuclear power they get.
PS. not that poor, Finns earn more per capita than poor Britain.
PPS. we all lose something due to the war, Finland for instance is a oil exporting country having no oil of its own. How that works you will for sure work out.
Aye, right, Lars.
Finland's home heating comes from Russian gas, not Finnish nuclear.
I meant 'poor Finland' in terms of the difficult choice they face, not in terms of GDP - yet. How rich will the Finnish be without Russian gas?
My girlfriend refused to get out of bed in an unheated Scottish house in winter, and I said, "I thought you'd be used to it, you are Finnish."
She was not inspired. "In Finland it is only cold outdoors."
She also got annoyed when Scots called cold situations 'Baltic'. "The Baltic is a very warm sea in summer". I was only in Finland in winter and it was effing Baltic, albeit warm indoors.
"Finland for instance is a oil exporting country having no oil of its own. How that works you will for sure work out."
That is either lost in translation or needing an explanation.
@Danny 2
First of all I studied in England and I, and my wife, have never been so cold in winter ever.
For us It was the single glass windows, some odd night heating, and not enough warm water for a single bathtube.
Warming homes with gas was skipped in the 50s in Finland.
I have an old house and oil is needed for warm water and heating (with warm water). My cottage in the archipelago is heated with electricity and the occasional wood stove. All my neighbours have similar systems some in addition with sunpower and air source heat pumps.
One neighbour got rid of his oil burning and has air source heat pumps and of course electricity.
One neighbour has a 90m deep hole in the granit and gets all the heat he needs that way.
Towns are maily heated by district heating, every second Finn live in a house/flat heated like that.
Then there is the question of howto heat all that water, and there is of course gas and oil and some peat and even trash.
And never stuff like this:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/17/microsoft_datacenter_finland/
The use of natural gas for energy in Finland is less than 6%. Nuclear +40%. Renewable +30%.
Then for that explanation you seem to need.
Think Lipton, no tea was grown in England, so what you do is to buy in bulk and then sell the refined products.
One company good at that is Neste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neste
@Lars
My girlfriend's flat was heated by 'district heating', but I failed to ask her what that is. What is it?
You are quite correct about single glazing in England but never come to Scotland, England is a tropical paradise in comparison. You are also correct about Finnish home heating not being Russian gas, but your economy is dependent on Russian gas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Finland#Natural_gas
I lived in a tent for at least ten years, blizzards and storms, I was never this cold. I've lost a bit of weight and even though I'm indoors everything metal is freezing, everything black is too cold to touch.
I don't know if you even want to be in NATO. I never did until Ukraine. My football team just brought fifty Dnipro orphans here, and they say it is beautiful here. It is not, which makes me worry about the state of Dnipro.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-61179663
@Danny 2
Hello, we are apparently the only two left on this thread about "SAP".
The Wiki link you provided has awfully old data, like . "Finland was 100% dependent on a single supplier in gas, namely Russia" but that is regarding 2010.
If you look at 2020 stats here you find this
Natural Gas Imports 10805.00 Terajoule
Natural Gas Imports from Russia 2909.00 Terajoule
https://tradingeconomics.com/finland/imports-by-country
But it's inevitable that ending a trade relation will cost something for everyone who has any trade.
Anyway the Finnish government has made it's decision to end Russian imports of energy.
As for district heating you find it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating#Finland
My cousin married a nice lady from Scotland and when I had a chance I went to see her parents in Dundee in spring, long ago. Nice people, nothing to complain about in Scotland.
NATO has been a topic in Finland since it was founded.
I let a former Finnish PM explain that here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdnOm0HvLJc
All the best to you and nice of you to take care of orphans from Ukraine.
Lars
I think Germany only wants to do it if the EU is united, and that is only possible if Macron wins on Sunday. No point in talking about it before that, and doing so might even increase LePen's chances - which no one wants to see as her first order of business would probably be to roll back other sanctions on her buddy Putin.
It's not like SAP had a long term future in Russia anyway. El Reg previously posted a story on Russia was already banning foreign owned software in critical industries starting in 2025. The industries covered probably accounted for most or all of SAP's customer base there. I suspect this may have played a major factor in SAP's decision.
Russia bans foreign software purchases for critical infrastructure
https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/01/russia_bans_foreign_software/
In the mean time, the same legislation authorizes import and use of software without the copyright holder's permission if the company selling it has pulled out of the Russian market.
I imagine that someone somewhere will launder updates and support through a company located outside of Russia to cover the interim. This sort of thing already happens in the US for purely commercial reasons unrelated to Russia and has been the subject of lawsuits there by Oracle, if not others as well.
I suspect that SAP and other major Western companies realize they really have no future in the Russian market so they may as well plan an exit strategy now which still gives them potential for revenue from remaining customers in the interim.
The power of the mob is truly frightening. Anonymous because I don't ever want to be on the wrong side of it.
I am not against the mob. If they could turn their ire against all evil doers it could even make the world a better place. But that doesn't seem to be their desire.
So you're saying before anything is done, we have to apply pressure on anything and everything that is not right? So basically nothing good will be done until we're all perfectly internally consistent?
That just plays into evil bastard's hands. We basically do nothing, and move nothing forward.
Ah, so half the world is a "mindless mob" that should just let other countries kick the living shit out of countries a fraction of their size for no other reason than a load of bollocks about Nazis being in charge. If you support dear Uncle Vlad, that's fair enough. You see luckily most countries in Europe actually allow you enough freedom for you to support whomever you wish and allow you to voice an opinion free of censorshop unlike...what's the country called, huge place covering most of northern Asia...top of my tongue.
Ah, so half the world is a "mindless mob"
Looking at most data regarding IQ, it does seem like it follows the normal distribution pattern, with 100 being in the middle. So yes, that statement would be somewhat accurate, though I wouldn't say mindless, but definitely less of a mind.
As for opinions, they're like assholes, everyone has one. It's just not that every opinion is equal.
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