You'd think that even Bill Gates would grow weary of chasing small-business owners. For years now, Microsoft and its rivals have expended great amounts of energy trying to capture this notoriously fragmented (not to mention downright cheap) customer base.
Microsoft, of course, doesn't get weary; it just gets fatter budgets. That point hit home yesterday when the company signed a $1.1 billion stock deal to acquire Great Plains Software, the Fargo, N.D., firm that broke from the pack of accounting software companies to dominate the small-business market. The company has developed a healthy line of financial management and supply-chain applications that cater to the needs of the little guy. The new division, dubbed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, gives Gates and company access to Great Plains's customer base of more than 140,000 small and midsize companies.
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