Sage is reportedly not bidding for Italian business management firm TeamSystem, after it mulled putting in a £542m (€650m) offer for the company last week.

Sources told the Financial Times late on Friday that no bid was put forward for TeamSystem, which is being sold by private equity outfit Bain Capital, following due diligence of the biz.

The unexpected exit by Newcastle-based Sage means that private equity companies Cinven and HgCapital, which have both bid for TeamSystem, are now in the running to take over the firm.

As the FT noted, this is the second time Sage has cautiously stepped back from bidding for a company because it doesn't want to splurge too much cash on any takeover bid.

In July Sage walked away from a bidding war over Teta because it couldn't justify raising its offer for the Polish IT provider. ®

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