SAP headquarters in Germany. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – SAP, the world’s fourth-largest software company, announced over the weekend that it has acquired Israeli startup Gigya for $350 million in cash. The deal is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks.

The German multinational software giant, whose name stands for “systems, applications and products” in data processing, has been active in Israel since 1998. The company is headquartered in Ra’anana and employs over 700 workers.

Customer identity management company Gigya was founded in 2006 in Tel Aviv by Eyal Magen, Rooly Eliezerov and Eran Kutner. The company currently maintains offices in California, New York, Tel Aviv, London, Paris, Hamburg, and Sydney.

Gigya employs 100 people in Israel. Its core operations focus on analyzing user data for large websites, and its clients include Fox News, Forbes, Pepsi and the NBA. Gigya’s technology is used by some of the largest media corporations to “get to know” their users by analyzing user habits, in the hope of cementing user loyalty.

Gigya has raised $104 million to date in seven financing rounds, the latest in November 2014. Gigya investors include Israel’s Vintage Investment Partners, Adobe, Intel Capital and Advance Publications, which owns American mass media company Condé Nast. The company’s value in the last round was estimated at $300 million.