SAP will cut about 2,250 posts, or around 3 percent of its global workforce, while creating a similar number in expanding parts of the company, as it accelerates a push to sell its products via the Internet.

Last year SAP, Europe's largest software maker, which employs about 75,000 workers worldwide, cut a similar percentage of posts.

SAP said that it was responding to changes in market circumstances and the the cuts were not part of a cost reduction plan but a refocusing of the company.

SAP expects to create about 2,200 jobs this year in growth areas such at its cloud business, its in-memory database Hana and Concur, the expenses software maker it bought last year for $7.3 billion.
Last year SAP created a similar number of new jobs, a spokesman said.

SAP has launched a high-stakes overhaul of its core software line, aiming to convince major corporate customers that its software can run their most critical applications to predict business conditions.

Established software makers such as SAP are battling to boost internet software sales and fend off pure cloud-based rivals such as Salesforce.com (CRM.N) and Workday (WDAY.N).

SAP workers in Europe can make use of voluntary leave arrangements. In Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, SAP will in addition be offering early retirement.

SAP said it excludes forced redundancies in Europe.