In an announcement following by barely 3 weeks the disclosure that Lawson Software had received an unsolicited bid from Infor Global Solutions , private equity firm Apax Partners has announced plans to acquire and merge Activant Solutions and Epicor Software into a new privately-held company, to be called Epicor Software. The new entity will have some 30,000 customers and $825M in revenues. This clearly indicates continuing interest by the investment community in the lucrative ERP marketplace, and an opportunity for larger players in the marketplace other than the two giants, SAP and Oracle .