In outlining the history of the process, Unit4 said Advent and one other party had received process letters in September, after several parties expressed interest in acquiring the company. After a press release was issued following a leak of the news, 10 more parties expressed interest. Four of these sent letters of interest and all of them were private equity firms, which says something about the amount of money out there expressing interest in ERP vendors. Only two bidders, one of them Advent, submitted binding bids. The size of the bid certainly is rewarding to shareholders. The price offered is 55.5-percent higher than the average trading price for the 12 months ending October 11, the last trading day before the Advent offer was announced. Advent is financing the offering through debt of about $831.2 million and the rest through what were described as funds from "certain Advent funds in the form of equity and shareholder loans." As noted in other newsletters, private equity interests own Epicor, Deltek and Abila and have interests in Accellos and SwiftPage in this market. Among the plans outlined by Unit4's management following a deal is geographical expansion, including growth in the United States.