Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, KKR, Silver Lake, Providence Equity, Bain and the other private equity companies that bought Wayne-based corporate software maker SunGard in 2005 for $11.4 billion, are now weighing a sale or initial public stock offering (IPO) that would value what's left at $7 billion, the Wall St. Journal says.
Last year, SunGard split off its Sungard Availability Services (AS) unit -- the company's original computer backup business, developed by Sunoco in the early 1980s -- after it failed to find a buyer amid stiff competition from cloud-based services. Two years earlier, the owners sold company's college software business to what's now Ellucian, for $1.8 billion.
SunGard today reported increased sales and operating earnings. The company suffered slow growth under its private-equity owners, who expected dividends at a time when rival software firms were investing heavily in cloud-based services and marketing. A strategy to boost sales by selling to the firms' other companies fell short.