Intuit's executives received hefty hikes in compensation for the year ended July 30. The exception was CEO Brad Smith, who saw his pay fall to slightly more than $16 million for the most recently ended year, a decline of 3.2 percent from $16.5 million for fiscal 2014.  However, Smith's total for 2015 was still sharply higher from the $12.5 million he earned for fiscal 2013. Otherwise, the heads of the software company's two divisions and its CFO received double-digit increases, largely as the result of stock awards.

The latest game in mid-market software could be "Where are the Sage execs?" And in the latest move, Doug LaBahn has surfaced at Xero as VP of product and partner marketing. LaBahn listed the new job on his LinkedIn page, although he has not added to the Background section. Sage had just announced LaBahn's immediate departure as global VP of marketing for Sage Live last week.

The hottest topic in the mid-market right now is Dynamics AX with Microsoft officially announcing this week the product will be available in the cloud in the first quarter. Since resellers are already live with early customers, this hardly seems like a surprise for much of the channel and the ongoing consolidation of the AX VAR market suggests players have been readying themselves. "We have invested in early access programs that have the service in the hands of hundreds of partners and have a record number of ISV solutions ready to go with the new Dynamics AX at launch," wrote Mike Ehrenberg, chief technology officer for Microsoft Business Solutions.