Sage Group announce acquisition of PAI Group – provider of PayChoice

Sage Group have announced an agreement to acquire the US Company PAI Group, who provide payroll and HR services under the banner PayChoice for SMEs in the US. This acquisition accelerates Sage’s move to the cloud in this market by leveraging PayChoice’s Software as a Service (SaaS) platform.

PayChoice is a very good fit with Sage, and will help strengthen Sage’s position in the large and growing US payroll market.  PayChoice’s product portfolio provides online payroll solutions to SMEs, and its addition to the Sage portfolio is viewed as strengthening Sage’s value proposition to customers with a more robust and comprehensive offering. PayChoice is a profitable business with a high proportion of recurring subscription revenue. The consideration payable is US$157.8m (£96.9m*) in cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in October 2014.

Pascal Houillon, CEO of Sage North America, said: “PayChoice is an excellent business, with a strong management team, attractive cloud platform and a proven business model based on supporting the needs of small and medium-sized businesses and licensees. We are excited about the growth opportunity that the combination of Sage and PayChoice creates in this market and delighted to welcome the management and staff of PayChoice to Sage.”

Robert Digby, CEO of PayChoice, added: “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.”