This article is more than 1 year old

Sage evaluates sale of North American payments biz

A nice little 'underperformer', apparently

Accounting and payroll firm Sage may offload part of its North American business.

The UK firm is evaluating what it called “potential strategic options for the North American payments business", including sale.

“There can be no certainty that this evaluation will lead to any transaction,” the firm said in a statement.

The North American payments business was recently singled out with Sage's North American SMB and European Enterprise segment as an under-performing area.

Payments in North America were flat year on year in the firm’s latest results announced on November 30, helping ensure growth there was below that of group.

North America saw 12 per cent revenue increase to £535m versus 9 per cent to £1.569bn for Sage Group [PDF].

Payments has come under pressure and margins are being squeezed thanks to the presence in the field of giants including Apple, Google (with Android Pay) and PayPal.

Sage had said its tactic for the new year involved combining payments with its accounting and sales while payments now had a dedicated marketing team.

Since the acquisition of ARM Holdings this summer by Japan’s Softbank, Sage has acquired the title of biggest British technology firm. ®

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