The Associated Free Press didn't say whether or not Dr. Evil was one of the jurors participating in the SAP/Oracle lawsuit, only that the jury has ordered SAP to pay $1.3 BILLION.

SAP was found guilty of stealing customer support documents and software as part of a ploy to siphon customers away from Oracle. Naturally, Oracle has been crying foul over the ordeal, and it certainly didn't help that SAP AG admitted that a subsidiary stole the documents, further fessing up to owing $40 million, though disputing the billion dollar claim.

"For more than three years, SAP stole thousands of copies of Oracle software and then resold that software and related services to Oracle's own customers," Oracle co-president Safra Catz said after the verdict.

In the end, the jury sided with Oracle on the valuation of the stolen property. This obviously comes as a blow to SAP, which had set aside $160 million for anticipated damages and already paid $120 million of that sum to Oracle's lawyers, Yahoo News reports.

SAP, a multinational software development and consulting corporation, said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sybase for an all cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Sybase common stock at $65 per share. The deal represents an enterprise value of about $5.8 billion.

"With this transaction, SAP will dramatically expand its addressable market by making available its market-leading solutions to hundreds of millions of mobile users, combining the world’s best business software with the world’s most powerful mobile infrastructure platform," said Bill McDermott, co-CEO of SAP and member of the SAP Executive Board. "This is a game-changing transaction for SAP and Sybase customers, who will be better able to connect their employees with key functionality and information from anywhere and make it easier for companies to make faster, more informed business decisions in real time. With SAP’s customer-centric approach, we are resolute in our commitment to support Sybase customers to be best-run businesses."

SAP said the deal will allow it to accelerate the reach of its solutions across mobile platforms, while its own in-memory technology would boost the capabilities of Sybase's data platform. SAP also said it will continue to support each organization's product roadmap.

SAP this week reported a 9 percent year-on-year drop in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009, which led to the company's income dropping 12 percent from its record high one year ago.

"Q4 2008 was a record quarter, the best in the history of the business. That's the main reason for the decline," said CEO Léo Apotheker in a webcast news conference.

Software revenue was also down, dropping 15 percent, while software and software and software related services fell by 4 percent. But it wasn't all bad news for SAP. The company reported its support revenue rose 7 percent year-on-year.

Going forward, Apotherker said he expects SAP to return to top-line growth, though admitted "the market continues to be challenging and uncertainty among customers still exists."

SAP is getting a little help from Microsoft in taking on Oracle in the EPM (enterprise performance management) sector, and has already managed to wrangle a major customer from the competition.

CKE Restaurants, which owns recognizable brands like Carl's Jr. and Hardees, had been using Oracle's Hyperion software for the past one and a half decades to help plan out budgets, make forecasts, and consolidate financial data. That is, until SAP snagged the account. CKE Restaurants made the switch to SAP's BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation project this year.

Oracle purchased Hyperion in 2007 for a cool $3.3 billion, but according to Tom Lindblom, CTO of CKE Restaurants, it not only became "bigger and more comprehensive," but also too complex. With SAP's EPM software, CKE will "gain the ability to take much more current data and in essence morph the forecasting process into the budgeting process," Lindblom added.

While this is a major win for SAP, the company hopes it's just the beginning, and that's something Microsoft may be able to help with. SAP and Microsoft announced last month that the Redmond outfit would back BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation as "a preferred solution for companies running their business applications on the Microsoft platform."