Two buyout houses considering pulling out of their $2.25bn (€1.6bn) takeover of a US computer services company are seeking to pay only 60% of the break fees for terminating the deal as investors seek to flee troubled deals with minimum financial penalties.

Silver Lake Partners and ValueAct Capital Partners cited deteriorating profit at the company in talks designed to end their agreed takeover of Acxiom, a provider of business systems management software, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.