Accounts software firm Sage has paid £20m to acquire UK merchant services firm Protx. Protx, established in 2001, provides online payment services for small and medium businesses in the UK, with a customer base of over 10,000 businesses (growing by 350 a month).

Sage said the "expanding and highly fragmented market" for payment services that allow small businesses to sell goods online is fast expanding but poorly serviced by the larger payment processing companies. Acquiring Protx follows its strategy to provide a broad range of business services to small businesses, enabling customers to integrate merchant services with accounting, stock control, and CRM applications.