Walldorf-based SAP announced October 21 its net profit surged by 23 percent in the third quarter, reaching 762 million euros ($1.036 billion).

The company's cloud computing business was particularly strong, seeing revenues in the segment triple to 191 million euros from 63 million euros year-on-year, indicating a strong interest by clients to access SAP's computers over the Internet rather than having their software installed and maintained on-site.

"The industry's move to cloud and mobile computing is a fundamental transition of the industry and SAP is clearly leading the switch to the new way of doing this," SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe said in a statement.

Hana a business hit

Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt noted SAP had "a very strong performance in the third quarter" despite shifts in currency exchange rates affecting the firm's revenues which only grew by 2 percent year-on-year and thus were lower than analysts had penciled in.

The company also cited a mixed market environment in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, pointing specifically to southern European nations such as Spain, Portugal and Italy which had suffered from slow growth and record-high unemployment.

SAP insisted its Hana database technology allowing for real-time data analysis had been a huge success again, with third-quarter revenues from it soaring by 90 percent to 149 million euros.

SAP had a workforce of 66,061 full-time workers globally at the end of the quarter, 380 more than a quarter earlier, not counting staff from companies it had acquired.

hg/kms (dpa, AP)