Private Equity Fund Apax Grabs Software Firms Epicor and Activant
Software firms Epicor and Activant Solutions both agreed to be bought out by private equity funds affiliated with private-equity firm Apax Partners in a deal worth a combined $2 billion. Epicor, whose shares surged 11 percent to $12.50 early Monday, valued its deal–which probably includes debt–at about $976 million. Apax said it plans to merge the two companies into a privately held company under the Epicor name, which it said would have more than 30,000 customers and $825 million in annual revenues. Several law firms announced they would investigate the possibility that Epicor directors violated their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders by not shopping the company around before agreeing to Apax’s terms.