NEW YORK – SunGard Data Systems Inc. (SDS), a financial services technology company, on Monday said it is in talks to sell the company to an unnamed buyer, sending its shares up as much as 24 percent.
One source said the unnamed buyer was a private equity consortium led by Silver Lake Partners.
SunGard said in a statement its board has instructed its advisers at Credit Suisse First Boston and Shearman & Sterling LLP, as well as senior management, to discuss the possible merger plan.
The company said it did not intend to comment further until the negotiations were completed or fall apart.
A source familiar with the situation said the buyout group included some of the country's biggest private equity firms, including Silver Lake Partners (search), Texas Pacific Group (search), Thomas H. Lee Partners (search), Blackstone Group (search) and Kohlberg Kravis and Partners (search).
A potential takeover price could not immediately be learned, but the New York Post, which first reported the negotiations earlier Monday, said it could be as much as $10 billion.
SunGard had a market value of $7.2 billion as of Friday, according to Reuters data.
Silver Lake, KKR, Thomas H. Lee and Texas Pacific both declined to comment. Blackstone could not immediately be reached for comment.
SunGard shares were up $4.92 at $29.87 on the New York Stock Exchange in morning trade, after earlier rising to a more than one-year high of $31.00.
SunGard, based in Wayne, Pa., has served as an incubator and acquirer of more than 100 technology companies. Last October it said it would spin-off its Availability Services unit in order to on its core software and processing business. The unit has more than 2,000 employees and revenue of $1.2 billion, .
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