FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - U.S. financial investor Bain Capital has made a takeover bid for Software AG, according to circles, aiming to outbid technology investor Silver Lake. Bain is offering 34 euros per share, the Bloomberg news agency reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Silver Lake had put an offer of 30 euros on the table just under two weeks ago and had already secured a large block of shares from the Darmstadt-based company's major shareholder, the Software AG Foundation. The price of the SDax-listed stock rose jerkily to over 35 euros in the afternoon. A Software AG spokeswoman would not comment on the information.

A bid from Bain would make true what investors have been speculating on, especially since last weekend - a bidding war for the software group. Bain has indirectly gained access to a good ten percent of the shares in the Darmstadt-based company via its own software company Rocket Software, including 4.5 percent of the shares directly. The investor has secured access to a further 5.5 percent of the voting rights via financial instruments. Silver Lake already owns over 30 percent.

Almost two weeks ago, Silver Lake announced its intention to take over the Darmstadt-based company. For their part, the Californians value the company at around 2.2 billion euros, while Bain is now offering around 2.5 billion. Silver Lake has acquired 25.1 percent of the shares via a purchase agreement with the Software AG Foundation and has also bought five percent on the market. According to Silver Lake, the foundation cannot withdraw from the purchase agreement. Ultimately, Silver Lake wants to take Software AG off the stock market.

Silver Lake is known as an investor in technology companies, among other things, the Americans also want to take over the SAP market research subsidiary Qualtrics together with the Canadian pension fund CPP Investment in a billion-dollar deal. Silver Lake had already joined Software AG in 2022 via a convertible bond. Since then, the company has provided two members of the Darmstadt-based company's Supervisory Board, Christian Lucas, Chairman, and IT expert James Whitehurst./men/he