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SAGE SELLING ACT, SALESLOGIX, FUND

Guy Berruyer, SageSage has done more to simplify its product line in the last two years than it has in the previous 20. The company is selling seven products that it considers non-core. Those in the United States are SalesLogix, Act, and Sage NonProfit Solutions, the old MIP. The deal was for about $145 million, most of it cash.  European products in the mix are C&I, ATL, Automotive and Aytos. This carries forward plans announced last year by chief executive Guy Berruyer to deal with his company's multitudinous product mix.

SwiftPage picks up the CRM packages and the NFP line goes to Accel-KKR. On the CRM side, that leaves SageCRM in North America, and I presume the world, and carries forward Sage's declaration of that product as a strategic product, which I have always thought was the smartest move. Act's days are behind it and SalesLogix was a good product that never got the attention it deserved or maybe it was just too high end for Sage. The one sale that I have questions about is the NonProfit line, the old MIP. This was the one remaining application that had special appeal for CPAs and it marks the final move away from the CPA market in the United States, at least in terms of products in the midmarket. You might recall that in the United Kingdom, Sage sells a full range of applications to accounting professionals in public practice. But in this country, the movement has been steadily away from selling the products to CPAs - it once had write-up, never really got into tax and  its financial analysis package for accountants and a one-time alliance with CCH never went anywhere. It still has Sage 50, the old Peachtree, and in particular Sage 50 Accountant, but that certainly has made no headway against QuickBooks. At least, if it had made headway, we would have heard more about it. But despite the Sage Accountants Network, I don't see a commitment to public accounting from this company, which may or may not be a bad thing. I don't know if Accel-KKR wants to keep NFP. It would make a good buy for someone like Thomson or CCH which could use it to both tighten CPA relationships and get a channel that could help - especially CCH - with its sales-and-use tax line.

 

 

 

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