SAP had a few interesting developments today.  First of all, it acquired Crossgate for an undisclosed amount, a company that offers hosted business-to-business integration services.  This means Crossgate customers can integrate their networks with partners to ensure secure file and data exchange.  The firm is also based on Germany, just like SAP, and claims its platform has been deployed by more than 40,000 clients.

Crossgate differentiates itself from more traditional means of integration and collobortion by offering a more affordable solution, according to the company, that also packs some interesting features such a the ability to send inbound and outbound invoices.

Here’s what SAP said in a release:

“The acquisition of Crossgate follows SAP’s strategy to complement existing applications and solutions with smart purchases that offer innovative technologies and capabilities while maintaining its successful organic growth track record.”

Bill McDermott, co-CEO of SAP, further emphasizes this point in an interview with Bloomberg’s Andrea Catherwood.  McDermott noted that his company is seeing its key markets have been growing “in solid double digits,” and even triple digits in some places.  He also highlighted that his company is focusing on three so-called mega trends: the mobile worker, big data, and cloud.

The last SAP update today comes from the courtroom.  Oracle sued the German business software maker in claims that one of its subsidiaries illegally accessed and downloaded copyrighted material from its servers. It was initially decided that SAP would pay Oracle $1.3BN in damages, but now that this figure shrunk to only $272 million, it seems that the former is making some gains. Today Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California asked Oracle to pull a request to appeal on the court ruling that overturned the massive $1.3 billion awarded at first.  It seems that SAP won the latest round of this legal battle.