Atlassian vs SAP: Founders, CEOs and History
Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar and is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes. SAP was founded in 1972 by Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector and is led by Christian Klein.
Company facts
Founders
Atlassian
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Atlassian was founded in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. The founding of the company is a notable departure from the traditional Silicon Valley startup narrative.
Scott Farquhar
Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002 and served as co-CEO alongside Mike Cannon-Brookes until he stepped down on August 31, 2024, one of the longest co-CEO partnerships among listed technology companies.
SAP
Dietmar Hopp
Dietmar Hopp is one of SAP's five co-founders. After leaving IBM in 1972, he helped build the company's first real-time financial accounting software for chemical maker ICI. He served as co-CEO of SAP from 1988 to 1998 and later sat on the Supervisory Board.
Hasso Plattner
Hasso Plattner is the SAP co-founder most closely tied to its technology roadmap, from R/3 to the in-memory HANA database.
Hans-Werner Hector
Hans-Werner Hector is one of SAP's five co-founders. He worked on the company's early software and later served on its Executive Board. He co-founded the Hector Foundation, which funds science, medical research and education for gifted children in Germany.
Klaus Tschira
Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) was one of SAP's five co-founders and a long-serving member of its Executive Board and later its Supervisory Board.
Claus Wellenreuther
Wellenreuther co-founded SAP in 1972 alongside four colleagues. He specialized in financial accounting software and was instrumental in designing the foundational RF system, the predecessor to SAP R/1, before leaving the company in 1980 due to health reasons.…
CEOs and their tenures
Atlassian
- Mike Cannon-Brookes2002–present
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Cannon-Brookes has led Atlassian since founding it in 2002, taking it from a $10,000 startup to $6.57 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue, and has been sole chief executive since Scott Farquhar stepped down on August 31, 2024.
Source - Scott Farquhar2002–2024
Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer
Farquhar served as co-CEO alongside Cannon-Brookes from 2002 until August 31, 2024, overseeing technical and engineering areas of the company as it grew from the original Jira issue tracker to a cloud platform serving more than 350,000 customers.
Source
SAP
- Bill McDermott2014–2019
Chief Executive Officer
Under McDermott SAP shifted toward cloud subscriptions and expanded through acquisitions including Concur (2014) and Qualtrics (2019). He left in 2019 to lead ServiceNow, and Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein succeeded him.
Source - Jennifer Morgan2019–2020
Chief Executive Officer
She was the first female CEO of a DAX index company, playing a key role in SAP's cloud growth before departing in early 2020 as the company consolidated under a single CEO.
Source - Christian Klein2020–present
Chief Executive Officer
Under Klein, cloud revenue grew from ~$9.15 billion (EUR 8.1 billion) in 2020 to ~$23.7 billion (EUR 21.0 billion) in 2025, and SAP's strategy narrowed to cloud ERP, data and Business AI.
Source - Dominik Asam2023–present
Chief Financial Officer
As CFO, his operational discipline significantly expanded free cash flow and operating margins as the company transitioned aggressively to cloud subscriptions.
Source
Timeline: Atlassian and SAP side by side
1972SAP
SAP is founded
Five former IBM employees founded SAP to build real-time standard business software.
1988SAP
SAP IPO
SAP listed on the German stock exchanges in 1988.
1992SAP
SAP R/3 launches
R/3 brought client-server ERP to a broader global enterprise market.
2002Atlassian
Company founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in Sydney
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian with $10,000 in credit card debt while students at the University of New South Wales. They launched Jira, a bug-tracking and project management tool for software developers.
2004Atlassian
Launch of Confluence team collaboration platform
Atlassian launched Confluence, a team collaboration and documentation platform that complemented Jira and expanded the addressable market beyond software development into general team collaboration and knowledge management.
2005Atlassian
Reaches $1 million in annual revenue with no salespeople
Atlassian reached $1 million in annual revenue entirely through self-service online sales, validating the product-led growth model and demonstrating that enterprise software could be sold without a traditional sales force.
2010Atlassian
Raises $60 million from Accel Partners
Atlassian raised its first outside investment, $60 million from Accel Partners, after eight years of bootstrapped growth. The money went to product development and international expansion, not to building a sales force.
2010SAP
Sybase Acquired
SAP bought the database company Sybase in 2010 for about $5.8 billion.
2012Atlassian
Acquisition of HipChat for real-time messaging
Atlassian acquired HipChat, an enterprise messaging platform, entering the real-time communication market and expanding the product suite beyond project management and documentation.
2014SAP
Acquired Concur Technologies
SAP acquired Concur Technologies for $8.3 billion. SAP bought Concur, the leading travel and expense management software provider, for about $8.3 billion to expand its cloud business and its network of business-spend services.
2015Atlassian
Initial public offering on NASDAQ
Atlassian completed its IPO on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, raising $462 million at a valuation of $4.37 billion. Shares were priced at $21 and rose 32% on the first day to close near $28.
2015SAP
S/4HANA launches
S/4HANA became the foundation for SAP's next-generation ERP roadmap.
2017Atlassian
Acquisition of Trello for $425 million
Atlassian acquired Trello, a visual task management platform built on Kanban boards, for $425 million in cash and stock. The deal extended its reach to non-technical teams and smaller organizations, complementing Jira.
2018Atlassian
Launch of Jira Service Management
Atlassian launched Jira Service Management, entering the IT service management market and extending Jira from software development into IT operations and service desk work.
2019SAP
Jennifer Morgan becomes CEO
Jennifer Morgan became CEO of SAP in 2019. Chief executive of SAP from 2019 to 2020.
2019SAP
Acquired Qualtrics
SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion. SAP bought experience management company Qualtrics for about $8 billion in early 2019, shortly before Qualtrics' planned IPO, to link customer and employee sentiment data with operational data.
2020Atlassian
Acquisition of Mindville for asset management
Atlassian acquired Mindville, an IT asset management company, to add asset and configuration management to Jira Service Management for enterprise customers.
2020SAP
Christian Klein becomes sole CEO
Christian Klein became sole chief executive of SAP SE in April 2020 after six months as co-CEO.
2021Atlassian
Acquisition of Chartio for data visualization
Atlassian acquired Chartio, a cloud data visualization and analytics company, to improve reporting across the product suite. The standalone Chartio product was later discontinued.
2022Atlassian
Acquisition of Percept.AI for AI virtual agents
Atlassian acquired Percept.AI, an AI virtual agent company, to add automated ticket handling to Jira Service Management ahead of its broader AI push.
2023Atlassian
Acquisition of Loom for approximately $975 million
Atlassian acquired Loom, an asynchronous video messaging platform, for about $975 million, its largest acquisition by announced value, adding recorded video to Jira and Confluence workflows.
2023SAP
Joule announced
SAP introduced Joule as a generative AI assistant for enterprise applications.
2024Atlassian
Launch of Rovo AI assistant
Atlassian launched Rovo, an AI assistant embedded across its products, providing search, summarization, automation, and agents that draw on the Teamwork Graph.
2024Atlassian
Server end-of-life forces cloud and data center migration
Atlassian ended support for its Server product line in February 2024, requiring remaining on-premises customers to move to either Cloud or Data Center subscriptions.
2025Atlassian
Launch of Atlassian Collections
Atlassian began selling Collections, bundles of apps and AI agents priced around an outcome rather than per product: the Teamwork Collection, Software Collection, Service Collection, and Strategy Collection.
2025Atlassian
Announces end of life for Data Center products
On September 8, 2025, Atlassian announced the end of life of its Data Center products under a migration program called Atlassian Ascend.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of The Browser Company of New York
Atlassian completed the acquisition of The Browser Company of New York, maker of the Dia and Arc browsers, on October 20, 2025, for a total purchase price of $488.3 million, taking the company into enterprise browsers.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of engineering intelligence vendor DX
Atlassian acquired A Software Company, which trades as DX, on November 10, 2025 for $720.4 million in cash. DX measures how engineering investment turns into delivered work and is being folded into Atlassian Collections.
2025SAP
Cloud revenue reaches ~$23.8B (EUR 21.023B)
SAP's 2025 results showed cloud revenue, backlog, and predictable revenue becoming central to the model.
2026Atlassian
Restructuring eliminates roles covering about 10% of the workforce
Atlassian initiated a second restructuring plan in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, eliminating roles covering approximately 10% of its workforce to fund investment in AI and enterprise sales.
2026Atlassian
Rovo reaches over 80% of the Fortune 500
Atlassian reported that Rovo was in use at over 80% of Fortune 500 companies and that its MCP server and Teamwork Graph CLI passed one million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, more than doubling in a quarter.
2026SAP
Dremio and Prior Labs acquisitions close
SAP completed the Dremio and Prior Labs acquisitions in July 2026 to strengthen Business Data Cloud and AI on structured data.
Acquisitions
Atlassian
- The Browser Company of New York Inc.2025$488.3M
- A Software Company (DX)2025$720.4M
- Loom, Inc.2023$975M
- Percept.AI2022Undisclosed
- Chartio2021Undisclosed
- Mindville2020Undisclosed
SAP
- Dremio2026Undisclosed
- Prior Labs2026Undisclosed
- WalkMe2024$1.5B
- Qualtrics2019$8B
- Concur Technologies2014$8.3B
- Fieldglass2014Undisclosed
Questions about Atlassian vs SAP
Who is the CEO of Atlassian Corporation and SAP SE?
Atlassian Corporation is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes and SAP SE is led by Christian Klein. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Atlassian Corporation founded vs SAP SE?
SAP SE was founded in 1972 — 30 years before Atlassian Corporation, which was founded in 2002. SAP SE's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Atlassian Corporation.
How many employees does Atlassian Corporation have compared to SAP SE?
Atlassian Corporation employs approximately 13,301 people, while SAP SE employs approximately 112,019. SAP SE has the larger workforce at 112,019 employees, compared to Atlassian Corporation's 13,301. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Atlassian Corporation and SAP SE headquartered?
Atlassian Corporation is headquartered in United States and SAP SE is headquartered in Germany. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded Atlassian Corporation and SAP SE?
Atlassian Corporation was founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar. SAP SE was founded by Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, Hans-Werner Hector, Klaus Tschira, Claus Wellenreuther.
Which company has a longer operating history — Atlassian Corporation or SAP SE?
SAP SE has been operating for approximately 54 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Atlassian Corporation has been in operation for around 24 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Atlassian vs SAP overview