Gillian Tan, Columnist

That Once-Troubled SunGard LBO Shines In Its New Home

In 20/20 hindsight, the financial-software provider has been a win for its former private equity owners and the company they sold it to.

August 9, 2017 at 11:30 AM UTC

By Gillian Tan

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

1502121992_m104902 — Photographer: MIKE MERGEN

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Meet SunGard, a once-troubled LBO that's turned into a gift that keeps on giving.

This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of Fidelity National Information Services Inc.'s agreement to purchase the financial software company for $9.1 billion, including debt. The cash-and-stock transaction delivered SunGard's seven private equity owners a return of more than 1.5 times their initial investment. That's an impressive result considering SunGard's struggles during the financial crisis as it shouldered its buyout debt load amid a drop-off in business.1502205253996 And it justified the firms' collective decision to extend their ownership beyond a decade in order to wait for a post-crisis recovery.