Thought Leadership
The Walldorf-based software group SAP wants to buy the recruiting specialist SmartRecruiters and thus expand its SuccessFactors suite. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025.
SAP has signed an agreement to acquire SmartRecruiters, a provider of talent acquisition software. The US company is to be integrated into the SAP SuccessFactors Human Capital Management (HCM) Suite to support customers in recruiting and employee retention.
Focus on AI-supported recruiting processes
According to SAP, SmartRecruiters brings particular expertise in the areas of high-volume recruiting, automation of recruiting processes and AI-supported candidate experience. The more than 4,000 organizations worldwide that already use SmartRecruiters will benefit from the integration into SAP’s HCM environment.
“Hiring the right people is not just an HR priority – it’s a business priority,” explained Muhammad Alam, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for Product & Engineering. In future, customers will be able to manage the entire candidate lifecycle from sourcing to interviews and onboarding in a single system.
User-friendliness and analytics as sales arguments
SmartRecruiters’ user-friendly interfaces and seamless workflows are designed to complement SAP’s robust HR tools. Both companies hope that this will improve decision-making, shorten time-to-hire and improve the candidate experience.
Embedded analytics and AI-supported recommendations from both companies will provide deeper insights into talent pools, recruiting bottlenecks and workforce planning. The data-driven recruiting and analytics functions will be integrated directly into SAP’s existing HCM tools.
Standalone operation still possible for the time being
SmartRecruiters CEO Rebecca Carr sees the acquisition as a “great opportunity for companies worldwide to benefit from our industry-leading approach to talent acquisition”. The SmartRecruiters portfolio will initially remain available as a standalone solution following the acquisition.
According to the company, SmartRecruiters’ customers include Amazon, Visa and McDonald’s. The software-as-a-service platform automates and optimizes the entire talent acquisition process.
Completion planned for Q4 2025
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals. Neither company disclosed the purchase price
