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.

[7] 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.

David was so impressed that he hired Graham and academic Paul Muller to form Sage, selling their software first to printing companies, and then to a wider market through a network of resellers.

[8] In 1984, the company launched Sage software, a product for the Amstrad PCW word processor,[7] which used the CP/M operating system.

In 1999, Sage entered FTSE 100[7] 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.

[18] 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.

[19] The Financial Times reported that his departure would lead to speculation over Sage's mergers and acquisitions, which have been a key component to the group's growth in the past 20 years.

Stephen Kelly, the UK government's former chief operating officer, became group CEO in November 2014.

[25] In March 2017, Sage Group also acquired Fairsail, a Human Capital Management (HCM) cloud-based platform.

[30] Hare had been chief financial officer of Sage since 2014 and had been interim COO following the departure of the previous CEO.

[35] Founded and headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, the company has grown organically, through acquisitions and, more recently, through subscription services.

It is primarily used as a concert venue and centre for musical education, but also hosts other events including conferences.

[15] In 2008, Sage funded the revival of The Krypton Factor television series for ITV as a part of the Business Brain Training campaign.