That simply means that the existing owners sold 60% and retained 40% of the company's stock. They did not "invest" one additional penny of capital in the company.
With respect, you can't know that. It's quite possible that after the takeover a share issue/capital increase was made with equal participation.
Silverfleet may have put some of its money into the company, but I will bet it was a relatively small percentage of its money.
Given that, in their own words, financing was by Nordea - most likely. This is an LBO pure and simple
The Phase One management/stockholders did this transaction primarily, if not exclusively, to take a large part of their chips off the table.
Again, on a speculative note (with Michael's indulgence), that's a possibility but if Phase had needed additional equity, given the economic environment of QE and rising stock markets, the most obvious path would have been an IPO, this would have avoided the additional debt burden. Equally, I see nothing in the story so far that precludes the possibility (more likely probability) that the CEO of Silver Fleet is a PhaseOne user and has seized this opportunity to do a Leica/Kaufman. And THAT may not be a bad thing.
It's also worth noting that some are using the VC moniker. These are not venture capitalists, they're Private Equity - there's a difference.