Breaking News: Leo Apotheker Resigns as CEO; Jim Hagemann Snabe & Bill McDermott in as co-CEO's

Late Sunday night, SAP AG announced that the SAP board decided not to renew Leo Apotheker's contract as CEO, and that he will resign immediately, to be replaced with the co-CEO model once again, headed by Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott. Additionally, Vishal Sikka, has been added to the executive board.

Following the enterprise support debacle by SAP in 2008 and 2009, where the company raised its maintenance rates to 22% and then stuck by the move following an economic collapse and customer up-roar, it has become increasingly clear since late 2009 that Leo was on his way out.

After the return of basic maintenance support earlier this year, a first good move, SAP can effectively wipe its hands clean, and move on, hopefully in a more customer friendly direction. Of course not all of the blame can be placed on Leo Apotheker himself, but the buck stops with the CEO. He made it clear as a co-CEO that SAP margins must improve, and one of his first moves as a sole CEO was to increase maintenance to 22% ("enterprise support"). Customers are not stupid, and can put 2+2 together, and generally saw this as an arrogant move to essentially tax them during a "great recession." From my standpoint and interactions I've had with large SAP customers, this really hurt SAP's image... fewer and fewer customers saw SAP as an IT supplier that could be trusted. A change, desperately needed to be made!

I had the chance to attend the SAP influencer summit this December and had the chance to hear Jim Hagemann Snabe speak again... and I have to say that his combination of technology insight, as well as having a good grasp of what customers are thinking / looking for, will be huge assets for SAP. In today's world a CEO is perhaps even more important as a spokesman for the company than an actual business manager, and I believe Jim Hagemann Snabe is the right man for the job, in my experience, coming off well with both U.S. and European customers.

Additionally, by adding Vishal Sikka to the executive board, along with Jim and Bill as co-CEO's, SAP now has a pretty balanced representation at its executive ranks for its customer base in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

I will be joining an afternoon (CET) call with many of my PAC colleagues to hear more details about this major executive change at SAP, please check back later for more reaction!