SAP shells out $306m to end Oracle legal spat

Firm says it settled in order for the case to come to a "reasonable resolution"

SAP has held up the white flag in its long-standing spat with Oracle over copyright infringement, with the software giant agreeing to pay out $306m (£197m) in damages, which it believes to be "more than appropriate".

The dispute, which has rumbled on since 2007, was sparked after SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow was accused of wrongfully downloading millions of Oracle files.

The Germany-based company released a statement saying that it wanted to get the saga over and done with.

The statement read: "SAP believes this case has gone on long enough.

"Although we believe that $306m is more than the appropriate damages amount, we agreed to this in an effort to bring this case to a reasonable resolution."

SAP pled guilty to a number of charges and admitted to infringement.

According to Oracle, the $306m damages sum – plus the $120m SAP has shelled out in attorneys' fees – represents just the minimum amount as it is still pressing for the original jury award of $1.3bn to be re-instated.

Oracle attorney Geoff Howard said more than 10 million cases of illegally downloaded software were recorded.

"SAP's executive management team, including former CEO Léo Apotheker and current executives, knew about this massive theft all along and SAP had to concede infringement," he added.

"SAP's web scraper alone resulted in more than 10 million copies of Oracle's downloaded software and support materials running on SAP's servers."

The offer is thought to be awaiting court approval.