Sage snaps up US payroll provider for £100m

Sage acquires PayChoice, six weeks before new CEO takes over

Software firm Sage has acquired PayChoice, a US-based provider of payroll and HR services, for just under £100m.

PayChoice, which posted revenues of $38.9m (£23.79m) in 2011, provides mobile and web-based payroll applications mainly to SMBs in the US, and has 16 US offices with 260 employees.

The acquisition comes six weeks before Sage's new CEO, Stephen Kelly, takes on the job from Guy Berruyer who has been at the Geordie firm for 17 years, and has held the top post for the past four years.

Sage, which sells accountancy software to six million customers worldwide, also acquired German payroll firm Exact Software for £12.87m in July.

The accounting software giant announced in July it was trading in line with expectations for the nine months to 30 June and that its net debt fell to £67m from £106m at the end of March. Sage is hoping for six per cent organic growth by 2015.

Robert Digby, chief executive of PayChoice, said: "PayChoice is thrilled to become a part of Sage. We already share so many synergies: our heritage of supporting SMBs, our culture, our emphasis on customer experience, and our focus on accountants and financial institutions. This is a great move for our company and we see nothing but tremendous opportunity in the future."