Silver Lake, Bain vie for photobook maker Shutterfly, say sources-Reuters

(Reuters) – Silver Lake Partners LP and Bain Capital LLC are among the buyout firms in the running to acquire Shutterfly Inc, an online photo-sharing services provider with a market value of $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Silver Lake and Bain are through to the second round in the auction for Shutterfly and are considering whether to submit binding offers in the next few weeks, the people said this week.

The price of the possible offers could not be learned but the people said private equity firms may borrow more than seven times Shutterfly’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in a leveraged buyout.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. They also cautioned that any offer received may not meet the price expectations of Shutterfly’s board. Shutterfly, Silver Lake and Bain declined to comment.