"My guess is that they actually gave money back to the channel on those changes, and this is their attempt to reclaim that lost ground." That effort is driving smaller VARs to seek M&A partners and this person believes if announcements had come earlier, it would have given larger resellers "a jump start on smaller office acquisitions, prior to the Dec. 31 effective date. That would've been great for larger BPAC partners, but not so great for Sage's overall North American business." He also said that Sage left maintenance and support alone "thereby keeping their channel intact."