SAP

Microsoft hopes to gain leading positions in the growing business software market with a new multibillion dollar business. The Redmond company making its main profit on Windows and Office franchises hopes to bereave a big market share from giants like Oracle Corp, SAP AG and start-up online vendor Salesforce.com Inc.

"The opportunities to make a good business economically are wonderful," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in a telephone interview on Monday. "We're pretty pumped up."

 It became known that American Express and SAP AG have partnered to launch a new service allowing SAP customers in the USA to process electronic payments more seamlessly with American Express. Through this collaboration, the companies aim to clear roadblocks that can delay or deter corporate adoption of electronic payments, such as high costs of deploying and connecting a myriad of third-party systems. 

Stocks were little changed Thursday after a pair of disappointing reports on retail sales and new jobless claims weighed against a report showing an increase in business inventories.
The gain in inventories is a welcome sign for the economy and suggests that businesses are feeling more confident that sales will pick up. It was the second straight month that stockpiles increased after a stretch of 13 monthly declines.