Microsoft's Sage brush?
Hopes that Microsoft could use a chunk of its $46bn (£28.75bn) cash pile to make an acquisition in Europe saw City investors pile into Sage.
Its shares closed 13.5p higher at 179.75p as dealers took the view that Microsoft could easily afford to pay its shareholders a massive special dividend and purchase a European software company.
Microsoft has snapped up Sage's two largest rivals recently - Navision of the Netherlands and America's Great Plains - so that would make sense.
It would give Microsoft access to Sage's 3m business customers and its software packages.
However, the deal would need the blessing of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic and that could prove tricky.
Its shares closed 13.5p higher at 179.75p as dealers took the view that Microsoft could easily afford to pay its shareholders a massive special dividend and purchase a European software company.
Microsoft has snapped up Sage's two largest rivals recently - Navision of the Netherlands and America's Great Plains - so that would make sense.
It would give Microsoft access to Sage's 3m business customers and its software packages.
However, the deal would need the blessing of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic and that could prove tricky.
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