The story
Founded by CURTIS D J SHARPE, David Goldman and Paul Milford Muller on Apr 27, 1981.1
1981 to 2000
The company was founded by David Goldman, Paul Muller, and Graham Wylie in 1981 in Newcastle upon Tyne, 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 its 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 per month to over 300. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1989.
In 1991, Sage acquired the pioneering American accounting software developer Dac Software, Inc. from Insilco Corporation, who were undergoing bankruptcy reorganization at the time. Dac Software were well known for their DacEasy software suite, which was one of the first integrated accounting software titles to retail for well under $100, when most of its competitors sold suites with equivalent functionality for thousands of US$.
In June 1991, Sage Group moved into its first dedicated headquarters building, Sage House, in Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne, having previously been located in the Regent Centre office park.
In 1994, Paul Walker was appointed Chief Executive. In 1998, Sage's Professional Accountants Division was established. In 1999, Sage entered the FTSE 100 index, 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.
Sage was the best-performing UK share in the 1990s, increasing in value by 28,000%.
2000 to 2010
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 – known at the time 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.
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In 2004, the company completed its £50 million headquarters in the Great Park area of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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 had 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 2016 Sage introduced its first AI offering, a chat bot named Pegg.
In March 2017, Sage Group acquired Compass, an analytics and benchmarking platform. In March 2017, Sage Group also acquired Fairsail, a Human Capital Management (HCM) cloud-based platform. In July 2017, Sage purchased Intacct for $850 million.
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 divested its Brazilian operations to the president of the local business, Jorge Carneiro. In the 2020s, Sage began to integrate artificial intelligence into more of its products. In 2022, Sage launched a carbon accounting product, Sage Earth.
In 2021, Sage's Newcastle headquarters moved to Cobalt Park.
In February 2024, Sage announced the release of Sage Copilot, a generative AI-powered assistant, and the integration of its features into both its online and hybrid-desktop products. In July 2025, Sage announced its acquisition of Fyle, an AI-powered expense management platform.
In March 2026, Sage and Barclays entered a strategic partnership to integrate banking and accounting services for UK small businesses, a move described as a shift toward embedded finance aimed at reducing administrative burdens and supporting compliance with Making Tax Digital (MTD) regulations.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sage Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6