SAP to Acquire San Francisco-Based HR Software Firm SmartRecruiters

WALLDORF / SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4, 2025 — SAP and SmartRecruiters recently announced that they have entered into an agreement that will see the German software giant acquire the San Francisco-based talent acquisition (TA) software provider.

SmartRecruiters’ deep expertise in high-volume recruiting, recruitment automation, and AI-enabled candidate experience and engagement are considered an ideal addition to the SAP SuccessFactors human capital management (HCM) suite, as per a press statement.

The planned acquisition will strengthen SAP’s all-in-one HCM suite, so customers have the tools they need to attract and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive landscape, said the press release.

SmartRecruiters’ powerful, user-friendly interfaces and seamless workflows will complement SAP's robust HR tools, improving decision-making, reducing time-to-hire and providing a better experience for candidates, said the statement. Embedded analytics and AI-driven recommendations from both companies will provide rich insights into talent pools, hiring bottlenecks and workforce planning.

“Hiring the right people is not just an HR priority, it’s a business priority. With this planned acquisition, we will help our customers attract and hire the best talent so they can advance their talent acquisition agendas with speed and agility, while lowering their total cost of ownership,” said Muhammad Alam, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, SAP Product & Engineering said in a press release. “Customers will be able to manage the entire candidate lifecycle, from sourcing and interviewing to onboarding and beyond, all in a single system to streamline the experience for recruiters, hiring managers, and, in particular, candidates.”

How Will SmartRecruiters Benefit SAP?

Customers can expect enhanced and AI-enabled recruiting and hiring capabilities, making applicant tracking and candidate screening more efficient. Data-driven hiring and recruitment analytics will flow directly into SAP's existing HCM tools, providing a single system of record and harmonized data for compliant, seamless operations. The SmartRecruiters portfolio will also continue to be available standalone for the foreseeable future.

SmartRecruiters’ Software-as-a-Service solutions and platform enable more than 4,000 organizations globally to efficiently manage their hiring workflows end-to-end, offering a compelling experience to recruiters, hiring managers and candidates.

SmartRecruiters CEO, Rebecca Carr said, “SmartRecruiters’ mission has always been to make hiring easy. Joining forces with SAP presents a tremendous opportunity for enterprises worldwide to benefit from our industry leading approach to talent acquisition. I couldn't be more excited for the opportunity this planned acquisition presents for our customers, partners and employees as we build the future of hiring together.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. J.P. Morgan served as exclusive financial advisor to SmartRecruiters.

US Trade Slowdown and Japanese Boost

Last week, SAP admitted to have a slowing down effect on its customers’ decision-making due to the US tariff tensions were. However, Japan trade agreement announced Tuesday last week led to cautious optimism.

“In some sectors which are most affected by these [policy] decisions, like public sector U.S. and also the very big manufacturing industrial companies with complicated global supply chains, there was the one or other large transaction which has slipped over the turn of the last quarter,” SAP Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam told CNBC.

Dominik noted that deals were not completely vanishing, but approvals came from the top brass, stating that looming uncertainty were a roadblock for processes.

“Now we have to see how quickly we can catch up. That is very much a question of how the overall environment will evolve. I mean, obviously the most recent developments in Japan give us some hope, but too early to speculate on that,” Asam said.

“The faster the uncertainty abates, the more confidence we have in the outcome for the full year,” he added.

Brief Timeline of SAP

Biggest listed company: SAP in March became Europe’s biggest listed company, overtaking French luxury group LVMH and Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk in market capitalization, after pivoting the business firstly toward cloud computing and then toward opportunities in artificial intelligence.

Revenue Generation SAP now brings in the majority of its revenue from cloud services, and has focused on how AI can tap into its huge set of finance, sales and supply chain data to make efficiencies for businesses.

US Major Market: The US is one of SAP’s core markets, and investors have been questioning how the software giant would be impacted by a potential pullback in spending as the administration of President Donald Trump engages in tense trade disputes and tariff negotiations with much of the world.

Stock Movement: The status of any framework deal with the European Union was stuck in uncertainty as of last week. However, global stock markets were bolstered by the announcement Tuesday of an agreement with Japan setting tariffs on its exports to the US at 15 percent.

The planned acquisition will strengthen SAP’s all-in-one HCM suite, so customers have the tools they need to attract and retain top talent.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder