SAP AG Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker, who resigned unexpectedly, told employees that he did what was best for the company during a “brutal economic crisis”. Apotheker, 56, had struggled with both customer and employee discontent.

Sales tumbled at SAP last year, while Oracle Corp. claimed market-share gains.

Apotheker was replaced by board members Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, as co-CEOs. SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner will advise the new managers on technology and product development.

SAP, the top developer of business-management software, supplies software to some of the world’s biggest companies, including McDonald’s Corp., General Motors Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Executives, along with Plattner, 66 who joined Dietmar Hopp in 1972 to create SAP from International Business Machines Corp. will aim to “re-establish trust inside and outside” SAP.

After trading at 32.56 Euros, the company got a market value of about 40 billion euros ($55 billion).

“The core strengths of the company had been innovation and reliability before the focus shifted on accelerating the sales”, said Mr. Kisker, who spent 13 years at SAP.

The appointment of Vishal Sikka, the chief technology officer, to the board is evident of the fact that SAP is serious about refocusing on its core strengths.