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Friday, Aug. 28, 1998
Software blamed as a cause of bankruptcy
Software system SAP sold to FoxMeyer was worse than old system, lawsuit alleges
By SUSAN MONTOYA
Associated PressDALLAS -- A bankruptcy trustee for defunct FoxMeyer Corp. has filed a $500 million lawsuit against SAP America Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's largest software publisher, claiming it went bankrupt in part because the software it bought did not work.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Delaware, states the software system FoxMeyer was licensed to use was not what SAP had promised.
The lawsuit against SAP comes a month after FoxMeyer filed a companion suit in Texas state court against one of the software company's U.S. subsidiaries, Andersen Consulting.
``SAP licensed FoxMeyer the right to use the SAP system and then we hired Andersen to come and do the work necessary to install the system,'' FoxMeyer's bankruptcy trustee, Bart Brown Jr., said Thursday. ``The net result was that it never worked, and it was never a success.
``We paid them a lot of money, and we did not get what we bargained for,'' he said.
The lawsuit against Andersen, which has offices in Dallas and Houston, said the consulting company was instrumental in forcing FoxMeyer, which was based in the north Dallas suburb of Carrollton, to file for bankruptcy in 1996.
FoxMeyer was one of the largest wholesale drug distribution companies in the United States before filing for bankruptcy.
The former drug distributor alleges Anderson used it as a guinea pig in the installation of the SAP software package that ran the company's sales, distribution, order processing, inventory and accounting functions in concert.
After two and a half years, the lawsuit said, FoxMeyer was stuck with a costly computer system that was far worse than the system it was intended to replace.
SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, said Thursday the lawsuit against it was groundless and that the company had met all of its contractual obligations.
Andersen officials, in a prepared statement, said FoxMeyer's difficulties resulted from its own decisions and the competitive nature of the drug distribution business.
The San Francisco-based pharmaceutical company McKessen Corp. bought FoxMeyer and its consolidated enterprises in November 1996 after the company filed for bankruptcy.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web