Current Account: Alphyra's management have clearly nailed their colours to the mast in their attempt to buy the company from its shareholders - a little too eagerly in the opinion of some.

Having first warned off First Data Corp (FDC), which was considering a rival offer that would trump even the MBO team's upgraded €2.70 a share, the management team subsequently sent FDC a letter outlining the unity of the management team.

Fair enough. Let's just hope the quality of the bid stands up to inspection better than some of the claims in the letter. The MBO team proudly asserts that it is "the team that has built this business over the past five years".

Ah, that would be the team that floated the company, or its predecessor ITG, at £1.72 (€2.18) a share and built it into a company worth €1.55 before trying to buy it at €2.45 - a figure that would have given the original shareholders a return of just 12.4 per cent on their investment.

To put that in context, you would do better with An Post savings certificates.

Mind you, figures do not seem to be Alphyra's strongest suit these days. While the original offer document gave the name of 10 company personnel involved with the offer, the FDC letter included only nine. A spokesman for the company confirmed then that the team did indeed number just nine.

Three days later, the same spokesman had the team back up to 10. Takeovers are fluid situations at the best of times but quite what to make of a group that does not even know its own strength in numbers is another thing.