Sage Has Not Seen an Upturn in Company Formation

During the festive period, it is easy to think that most recent company formations are in the retail sector, and ignore the business to business arena. However, yesterday’s statement from Sage, the UK’s biggest professional software provider, reminded us that other sectors are still suffering.

Sage announced poor quarterly figures last month and was identified as one of the worst performing companies of its sector in the FTSE. And while its shares have fluctuated; the software giant still had to cut over three hundred jobs in the past year.

A spokesperson for Sage, has suggested that the decline license renewals is the main reason for the situation and that the SME sector has been the sector that has spend the least with them this year. Matthew Hudson, business development director of the company comments: “It is no secret that we have had a difficult year and if our projections are correct, it looks like 2010 will not be a great deal better. This is down, in part ,to a lack consumer spending; companies are less likely to spend money when the future looks uncertain and this has had an obvious impact on a number of companies which service the business to business sector.”
Hudson continues, “While there are encouraging signs that the SME sector is beginning to recover, we are expecting 2010 to show signs of market stabilization, not growth.”