SAP pays Oracle $20m for illegal downloading of software

The software giant SAP is to pay $20m (£13m) to settle a criminal investigation after one of its divisions was accused of downloading files from bitter rival Oracle.

The US Department of Justice, charged the group's TomorrowNow subsidiary with 12 criminal counts last week. The charges related to the illegal downloading of Oracle software files. No individuals were named in the case.

The plea is expected to be confirmed in court today. SAP agreed to settle the case last week, but the sum only became public in the court documents this week.

Last year a civil court ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3bn for similar accusations against TomorrowNow, which has since been wound down. That sum was later slashed to $272m on appeal.

Oracle is preparing to fight that decision, lodging an appeal on Monday, saying it will "pursue the full measure of damages that we believe are owed".