The slide of Hightower from important reseller to fire sale special is outlined in documents filed with the SEC by SilverSun Technologies, parent of  SWK Technologies, which picked up the pieces. Hightower lost just under $400,000 on revenue of $3.3 million for the year ended December 31. It also ended 2011 with $53,248 in cash, which shrank to $11,609 on March 31.

Cloud accounting vendor Xero has added 128 jobs this calendar year, bringing the number of employees to 187. That is up 124 percent so far and the New Zealand-based vendor plans to add another 100 before April. That signals the company's intention to keep growing at a rapid clip.

It would probably be a bigger story if the proposed acquisition of Deltek by venture firm Thoma Bravo did not draw a suit. After all, most merger announcements are followed by notices from law firms investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty by  directors.