Sage Group
Cash cost of purchase £96.9m
Guy Berruyer stands down as the chief executive of Sage on Guy Fawkes Day, but he is signing off with the company’s biggest acquisition since it entered the relatively undeveloped Brazilian market more than two years ago.
In the past Sage has struggled to find deals that met its criteria — and admittedly there is a small supply of makers of accounting software coming on to the market. However, it has been shaking off its stodgy reputation as the Grand Old Man of British software with some punchy growth targets.
The company seems confident that it can meet its forecast of 6 per cent organic growth for the financial year starting next month, even if the third- quarter