SiliconBeat

The bidding for SumTotal Systems went even higher Monday when the company amended its merger agreement with Accel-KKR to raise the proposed purchase price by a dollar a share from $3.80 to $4.80, according to a regulatory filing made today. That’s 30 cents higher than the counter bid made by Vista Equity, which set the whole bidding war in motion April 3 when it first made an unsolicited offer to buy the Mountain View developer of training and personnel software for $3.25 a share. Vista raised its bid last week to $4.50.

SumTotal, which had been free to solicit higher bids under its original merger agreement with Accel-KKR, has now committed itself to paying Accel-KKR a $6.67 termination fee if the deal doesn’t go through under certain circumstances, including if SumTotal accepts a “superior proposal from a third party”.

Investors have bid up SumTotal shares to $4.82 today in light of the news, two cents higher than Accel-KKR’s latest offer, so some are anticipating yet another counter offer.