The old men of Rock n' Roll, Rolling Stones, are preparing for the Zip Code tour. That will be followed by the Assisted Living Tour. Who knew that a career of chemicals and groupies would prove beneficial to the older active adult lifestyle? Who envisioned that at this point there would be more original Rolling Stones alive than original Beatles? The Stones tour announcement reminds me of a joke by Jay Leno on the tonight show in commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of John Phillip Sousa's band.

Shares of Exact Holding stopped trading on March 31 as its purchase by Apax Partners kicked in. Presumably, we will start seeing some changes under the new owners. The fact Exact is no longer public is something that was obviously going to happen with the purchase. But it emphasizes the role of private equity in this market, shown by the number of news items in this newsletter that involve private equity ownership of business software.

Nexonia is developing a product that would replace the discontinued Business Web Portal for Dynamics SL 2015. The company, whose products include expense reporting that integrates with a wide range of accounting software applications, says the portal will be ready for deployment in the early summer. Available for 10 years, the Microsoft portal was discontinued in September and Nexonia, based in Toronto, Ontario, had already developed a replacement for Dynamics GP.

Tax software companies Convey Compliance Systems, Taxware, and VAT Resource have become Sovos Compliance. This is one of those deals brought about by private equity. The convergence of the businesses began in December 2012 when Vista Equity Partners purchased Taxware and brought in Andy Hovancik as CEO. Taxware purchased VAT Resource a year ago and the merged Convey and Taxware during the summer. The combination brings together business that offer 1099 reporting, sales and use tax and value-added tax determination and compliance.