Sage Payment Solutions has acquired what it described as a “small portfolio of merchant customers processing on third-party platforms from Heartland Payment Systems.” The acquisition was the fifth of its type in the last 12 months. There was no definition of what “small” meant in terms of the number of customers or the type of customers and terms were not disclosed. However, the announcement said the unit is focusing on “strategic growth through acquisitions of targeted portfolios.”

Fishbowl Inventory is positioning the company’s inventory control application in what looks like a conscious effort to push a bit up-market suggesting that it is being pulled up market by its users.  Noting its product’s widespread use with QuickBooks, the company this week issued a press release stating “But many people don’t realize Fishbowl Inventory is growing in popularity as a standalone asset tracking solution among divisions and departments of large organizations.”

SAP continued on a path it started last fall with the launch of vertically focused analytic applications with the launch of six next entries in the Business Objects line. The six new applications are IP Rights Analysis, Upstream Operations Performance Analysis, Staff Productivity Management for Healthcare, Healthcare Practitioner Spend Analysis and Reporting Planning for Public Sector, raising the number of applications in this effort to 16.

Two press releases might not be a lot to base this theory on. But Sage this week issued two press release about happy MasterBuilder customers and that’s twice the amount it’s issued in the period starting March 5, 2009, which is where the current press release archive starts. Read more...