In a significant re-ordering of its business org and product portfolio, global SMB software Master Brand The Sage Group is selling off seven product lines that it considers non-core.

In a multi-faceted deal including cash, private equity, seller financing, and shifting ownership stakes, Sage North America is selling contact management software products Sage ACT! and Sage SalesLogix to Swiftpage, a US-based digital marketing platform provider for SMBs. Swiftpage has received capital from Sage and from private equity investment firm Accel-KKR to finance the acquisition and fund future growth. Sage will also end up with a 16% ownership stake in Swiftpage. Accel-KKR itself will purchase Sage Nonprofit Solutions outright. And Sage has received a binding offer from private equity group Argos Soditic for the acquisition of C&I, ATL, and Automotive in France, and Aytos in Spain. 

What is Happening?  Saugatuck SVP Bruce Guptill spent this week in Nashville participating in Sage North America’s annual customer and partner Summit. In addition to participating in group sessions with Sage channel and product executives, Guptill took part in numerous sideline discussions with Sage partners, and one-on-one interviews with Sage CEO Pascal Houillon and CTO Himanshu Palsule. Q&A from that interview will be published in a separate, in-depth Strategic Perspective for Saugatuck CRS subscription research clients.

Our net takeaway from this year’s Summit: Like other business software vendors everywhere, Sage is in the middle of a company-deep, Cloud-necessary reinvention. The rapid pace of market change has forced Sage to accept and execute a potentially overwhelming series of significant business and technological challenges, including the following:

Earlier this morning, Saugatuck listened in to the hour-long NetSuite (NYSE: N) earnings call for 1Q2012, recorded after the market closed yesterday. While not a huge part of our research process, monitoring vendor financial performance and Wall Street perspectives are an important additional input to our research process – beyond our ongoing client interactions, deep-dive vendor briefings, and primary buyer-demand research.

Overall, NetSuite reported strong 1Q2012 results, and well ahead of consensus estimates – with revenues advancing 29.7 percent (to $69.3 million), billings growing 26 percent, and earnings reaching $0.06 EPS. More impressive is the fact that year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter comparisons were particularly challenging, given strong performance in 1Q2011 and 4Q2012. NetSuite’s CFO guided the Wall Street analysts on the call toward full-year revenues of $295-$300 million, which would represent 25-27 percent growth, with operating margins approaching 6.0 percent (up from 5.3 percent in 2011).