Only this week CRM vendor Onyx got a new owner and other application companies that have been acquired in recent years include Pivotal, Systems Union, Great Plains, Damgaard, Axapta and Navision.

The rapid pace of consolidation is driving some customers to tier-one providers such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft to establish more concrete product roadmaps.

Vendors are buying 'critical mass' which they gain with the client bases of the acquired companies, said Martin Wildsmith, business solutions director of Eclipse Computing - a Microsoft reseller.

He said the takeovers lead to forced migrations for customers who are put on a path where choices are limited.

"Customers are not willing partners in this process; they want stability and direction," Wildsmith said.