Sage has launched its Sage 100c and 300c lines that are designed to transition its customers to the cloud, although it appears more aimed at moving them to subscription pricing.  "We know not everyone is ready to go to the cloud, but some are," says Diane Haines, director of strategic marketing for Sage North America. While there has been some uproar over fees for converting from 100 and 300, Haines says that applies only to those who want to upgrade to the newer products, but has no impact on those who will stay on the 2016 versions of Sage 100 and 300 at the same support levels.

Xero says it had 44,000 subscribers in North America at the end of the half on September 30. The low-cost accounting cloud software company said this week that was an increase in 114 percent over the first half of 2015 in what it terms an off-peak season. Worldwide, Xero had 593,000 subscribers on September 30, a 60-percent increase from the total a year earlier. Most of the total is 425,000 subscribers in Australia and Xero's home country, New Zealand.

Edgewater Technology, which has Oracle and Dynamics AX practices, has retained Signal Hill Capital Group to evaluate a hostile takeover launched by Ameri Holdings. In a prepared statement, Edgewater said this week it is aware of an attempt by stockholder, Lone Star Value Investors, to remove certain company directors. "The Board and Company management value input from all of the Company's stockholders," Edgewater said in a prepared statement. Lone Star, led by activist investor Jeff Eberwein, teamed up with Ameri Holdings recently to launch a proxy solicitation.