"The market developments of the past several weeks have been dramatic and worrying to many businesses," Henning Kagermann, the co-chief executive of the company, said in a statement.

"These concerns triggered a very sudden and unexpected drop in business activity at the end of the quarter," he added. "Unfortunately, SAP was not immune from the economic and financial crisis that has enveloped the markets in the second half of September, causing us to report numbers below our expectations."

SAP said it expects software and software-related service revenues for the July-September period to come in between 1.97 billion and 1.98 billion euros, or $2.66 billion to $2.67 billion. That is up about 13 percent from 1.74 billion euros in the third quarter of 2007.

SAP's U.S. shares were down $6.35, 14 percent, at $39.30 in afternoon trading.