Accounting firm Sikich has acquired Altico Advisors, a midmarket reseller based in Marlborough, Mass. With $45 million in revenue, Naperville, Ill.-based Sikich was No. 9 on Bob Scott's Insights Top 100 VARs for 2015. Altico was No. 59 with $7.9 million in revenue. The acquired firm carried Dynamics GP and CRM and NetSuite Sikich carries those and Dynamics AX, NAV and SP. Altico was founded in February 2005 by CEO Michael Kean, who had been a director at the former Tectura.

The stronger American dollar took a $19.9-million toll on the revenue of business analytics vendor Qlik Technologies for the second quarter ended June 30. The company lost slightly more than $13 million for the most recently ended period, a rise from a loss of $10.2 million a year earlier. Revenue reached $145.8 million, up 10.8 percent from $131.6 million in last year's corresponding period, an increase of 26 percent in constant currencies. The impact stemmed from the fact that 68 percent of Qlik's revenue is dominated in foreign currency.

Ross Jenkins, COO of Xero, is retiring from the company by the end of the year. He will not be replaced. Jenkins started with the low-cost cloud accounting software company as CFO in 2011. His LinkedIn profile describes that as his "dream job." In late January, Jenkins became COO when the company named Doug Jeffries as CFO. Jeffries, who was based in the San Francisco area, left after eight weeks on the job and Jenkins became interim CFO. He will remain in the transition when Sankar Narayan takes over as CFO.

CEO Steven Kelly impressed resellers at last week's Sage Summit, scoring well for leadership, openness and vision. Whether the market gives him time to execute the plan produced a more divided opinion. But as usual, people with positive things to say were more willing to put their remarks on the record. "The message and communications to the partners is a very positive change from the old management team," says Steve Blythe, owner of Blytheco, a top reseller. Bob Kohlmeyer, director of the DWD Technology Group, had glowing comments. "I walked away from Sage Summit more energized than I have in years. They announced a recommitment to Sage partners and increased reinvestment in core Sage products including Sage 100," Kohlmeyer said. "I think Sage has the ship moving in the right direction." Wendy Gorrie of Baass Business Solutions  also complimented Kelly on being available to VARs and praised Rich Spring, EVP and chief revenue officer. "He [Spring] is saying all the right things and showing signs of follow through with action," Gorrie said. Other attendees I contacted made remarks in the same tone.