Sage Group

1981 to 2000

The Company was founded by David Goldman, Paul Muller, and Graham Wylie in 1981 in Newcastle, to develop estimating and accounting software for small businesses.A student at Newcastle University, Graham Wylie, took a summer job with an accountancy firm funded by a government small business grant to write software to help their record keeping. This became the basis for Sage Line 50. Next, hired by David Goldman to write some estimating software for his printing company, Campbell Graphics, Graham used the same accounting software to produce the first version of Sage Accounts. David was so impressed that he hired Graham and academic Paul Muller to form Sage, selling their software first to printing companies, and then to a wider market through a network of resellers.In 1984, the Company launched Sage software, a product for the Amstrad PCW word processor, which used the CP/M operating system. Sage software sales escalated in that year from 30 copies a month to over 300. The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1989.In 1994, Paul Walker was appointed Chief Executive. In 1998, Sage's Professional Accountants Division was established. In 1999, Sage entered FTSE 100 and launched a dedicated Irish division, based in Dublin as well as its e-business strategy. In that same year the UK acquisition of Tetra saw Sage enter the mid-range business software market.

2000 to 2010

In 2000, Sage shares were named 'best performing share of the 90s' in the UK business press. In 2001, Sage acquired Interact Commerce Inc. and entered the CRM/contact management market and in 2002 Sage won 'Business of The Year' in the National Business Awards. Also that year, Sage sponsored the new Music Centre in Gateshead for £6m – now known as Sage Gateshead – the largest ever UK arts/business sponsorship. Sage are one of two technology stocks listed on the FTSE 100 Index, the other being Micro Focus. In 2003, at age 43, Graham Wylie retired with 108.5 million shares in Sage worth £146m. He was rated Britain's 109th richest person in the 2002 Sunday Times Rich List.Tony Hobson joined the Sage board of directors in June 2004 and became chairman in May 2007.

2010 to present

On 19 April 2010, Sage announced that its CEO, Paul Walker, had indicated an interest in stepping down from his position, which he had held for 16 years. The Financial Times reported that his departure would lead to speculation over Sage's mergers and acquisitions, which have been a key component to the group's growth in the past 20 years.Walker was one of the longest serving CEOs of an FTSE100 company. Walker left the company on 1 December 2010.On 1 October 2010 Guy Berruyer became CEO of Sage Group; Berruyer had previously been CEO of Sage's Mainland Europe & Asia operations.On 15 February 2013, Sage announced that Accel-KKR intended to buy Sage Nonprofit Solutions, its division that produced software designed for nonprofit organisations and governmental agencies.In August 2014, Sage announced that Guy Berruyer would retire. Stephen Kelly, the UK government's former chief operating officer, became Group CEO in November 2014. In September 2014 the company announced the acquisition of PayChoice for $157 million.In March 2017, Sage Group acquired Compass, an analytics and benchmarking platform. In March 2017, Sage Group also acquired Fairsail, a Human Capital Management cloud-based platform. In July 2017, Sage purchased Intacct for $850M.On 31 August 2018, Sage announced that Stephen Kelly had stepped down as a director and CEO. On 2 November 2018, Steve Hare was appointed CEO. Hare had been Chief Financial Officer of Sage since 2014 and had been interim COO following the departure of the previous CEO.In March 2020, Sage announced that it is offloading its Brazil operations to the president of the local business, Jorge Carneiro, in a deal estimated to be valued at £1 million with an additional deferred consideration of up to £9 million.