Norwegian business software provider Mamut has snapped up MYOB's UK division in a £1.7m deal.

Mamut, which has offered small business software in the UK market for several years, takes on MYOB's 50,000 active customer base.

MYOB's products will be supported by Mamut until at least 2009, and will be encouraged onto Mamut's offerings with free upgrades.

'We will try to show them [MYOB cusomters] the value of our broader product range,' said Mamut CEO Eilert Hanoa.

'The acquisition of MYOB Business Division is an important building block in the UK launch of Mamut One, our software and services offering, that is currently being introduced in markets across Europe,' he added.

IT analyst and Accountancy Age blogger John Tate said that MYOB was too small for Sage or Microsoft to be interested in purchasing, and the key for Mamut will be for it to manage to migrate customers onto its product without losing them.

MYOB's UK Accountants division was sold to Wolters Kluwer, which will be integrated into its CCH software division.

Further reading:

Acquisition duo provoke uncertainty

CCH to leave MYOB intact