Factor out some elements and the performance of Exact's Specialized Solutions, which includes five product lines, pleased the company for the first quarter ended March 31. On the surface, revenue was off by 4.3 percent, but the company noted that stemmed from the weakness in the U.S. dollar and also reflected a drop in revenue from Lohn which had some P&L numbers transferred to Exact's Business Solutions division.

There's no surprise in the report of the Wall Street Journal that Apax Partners wants to sell Epicor for between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion. A lot of us expected this when the company named Joseph Cowan as CEO in October, in a surprise replacement of Pervez Quereshi. Cowan's resume shows a long streak of short-term jobs as CEO of companies that were sold. Somebody commented about whether his move of company HQ from California to Austin, Texas, possibly had implications for potential buyers.

Brent Pieterick, a Sage and Microsoft veteran, has taken the job of channel sales director for NetSuite. Pieterick made the move in April after working for Sage since February 2010. He was most recently senior director for X3 channel and distribution, a position he had held with Sage since July. X3, of course, is Sage's hottest product and a key to its future, but obviously not Pieterick's. Before coming to Sage he was VP of sales and marketing for Tectura from March 2008 to December 2009.

There has been a lot of news about a town worried about that a large, beached animal may explode. "You mean the dead blue whale in California?" I was asked. "No, Toronto mayor Rob Ford." ... Political advisors have determine the best way to keep Ford from embarrassing statements is to have rocker Ozzy Osbourne give him elocution lessons. That way Ford can continue make gaffs, but no one will understand him. ... It is widely believed by scientists, because they play such an important role in our society, if the Kardashians did not exist, we would have to invent them.