o9 Solutions accuses SAP of trade secret theft in high-stakes supply chain software dispute

John Paul Hampstead

Mon, December 8, 2025 astatine 10:22 AM CST 4 min read

Dallas-based proviso concatenation bundle supplier o9 Solutions has filed a suit against German bundle elephantine SAP and 3 erstwhile o9 executives, alleging a coordinated strategy to bargain commercialized secrets and confidential accusation to bolster SAP’s lagging endeavor readying offerings. The complaint, lodged connected November 25, 2025, successful the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges firm espionage amid intensifying contention successful the AI-driven proviso concatenation absorption sector, a marketplace captious to freight and logistics operators seeking real-time visibility and efficiency.

o9 Solutions, founded successful 2009, emerged arsenic a disruptor successful endeavor readying and proviso concatenation technologies. Its flagship “Digital Brain” level leverages artificial quality (AI) and instrumentality learning (ML) to supply request forecasting, commercialized planning, and integrated concern solutions. At the bosom of o9’s tech is its proprietary Enterprise Knowledge Graph (EKG), which creates integer models of endeavor information for rapid, end-to-end decision-making. The institution boasts awesome growth: from a startup to a planetary entity with 17 offices, 2,500 employees, and unicorn presumption valued implicit $1 cardinal by 2020. Revenue highlights see 65% year-over-year subscription maturation successful 2022, 47% successful 2023, 37% successful 2024, and 63% successful Q1 2025. o9’s tools person attracted large clients successful industries similar user goods and manufacturing, wherever proviso concatenation disruptions—exacerbated by events similar the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions—demand agile, data-integrated platforms.

In contrast, SAP, the world’s largest vendor of bequest endeavor assets readying (ERP) bundle with implicit €34 cardinal successful yearly revenue, is accused of struggling to modernize. The suit details SAP’s Advanced Planning and Optimization (APO) system, launched successful the aboriginal 2000s, arsenic outdated, relying connected on-premises infrastructure with constricted real-time analytics. SAP introduced its next-gen Integrated Business Planning (IBP) successful 2013 to regenerate APO, which is acceptable to discontinue by 2027. However, o9 claims marketplace absorption to IBP owed to precocious costs, agelong implementation timelines, operational risks, and mediocre enactment for customizations. As a result, galore APO users person migrated to competitors similar o9, eroding SAP’s dominance successful proviso concatenation planning, a abstraction wherever freight companies trust connected seamless integration for inventory management, way optimization, and request sensing.

The allegations halfway connected 3 Dutch nationals and erstwhile o9 leaders: Stephan de Barse, o9’s ex-Chief Revenue Officer; Stijn-Pieter van Houten, erstwhile Senior Vice President and Knowledge Innovation Lead; and Sean Zonneveld, ex-Global Senior Vice President. De Barse resigned connected January 3, 2025, aft 7 years, and present serves arsenic SAP’s President of Global Business Suite. Van Houten and Zonneveld near connected May 30, 2025, joining SAP arsenic Chief Product Officer for Supply Chain Management Planning and Global Chief Revenue Officer for Procurement, respectively.