Sage Group Plc is once again on the acquisition trail, fulfilling the pledge it made in April that it would buy to expand and complement its business: this time its forms print management subsidiary, Newcastle-based Dataform UK Ltd has bought Leslie J Cantrell Ltd of Northampton, also a forms print management business, for UKP750,000 in cash. The acquired company trades as Venture Business Forms (West Midlands) and has warranted net pre-tax profits for the year ending August 31 of UKP150,000. Dataform says that additional payments of up to UKP1.7m may be made over the next two years, dependent on future profits. Sage says the acquisition has been made to expand Dataform’s geographical coverage: Dataform’s main offices and warehouse are in Newcastle; it has sales and service branches in London and Glasgow. It originates, buys, stores and distributes business forms for business customers who do not necessarily use Sage products. The purchase of Venture Business Forms will give the Sage division a sales office and customer base in the East Midlands, without overlapping on its existing activity. Venture Business’ warehouse and administration will be moved to Newcastle; its sales and service office will remain in Northampton. And Sage says this is just the first stage in a planned geographical expansion of Dataform’s coverage. Dataform is moving this November into a purpose built UKP1.5m office and wharehouse, next to Sage’s headquarters in Newcastle. Last month Sage bought Essex, near Boston, Massachusetts-based Timeslips Corp (CI No 2,485) developer of Windows-based personal computer software for time billing and management reporting systems. And And in July, the company bought Alton, Hampshire-based Multisoft Financial Systems Ltd for UKP4m in cash (CI No 2,458); Multisoft produces financial software under the Prestige and Premier Plus names for use on networks of personal computers and Unix systems.
