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January 16, 2008
Hottest M&A Sectors
In its latest review of the M&A activity in the tech sector Icon, the British corporate finance advisory firm, identified sectors that were "particularly hot" in 2007. (See the list below the jump.)
Overall M&A activity measured in number of transactions was down last year compared the previous couple of years, as Icon's graphic illustrates.
Security: Altiris, Iron Port, Protect Data AB, CyberTrust, SurfControl Postini,
Online Marketing: Double Click, Trade Doubler, Aquantive, Right Media, Blue Lithium, Hitwise 24/7 Real Media. It notes that all of these examples were acquired at "very high" valuations of up to 10 x sales;
Search Engine: Spannerworks
Business Intelligence Software: Hyperion, Spotfire, Business Objects, OutlookSoft and Cognos;
PLM: UGS and Agile Software;
Digital Mapping : MapInfo, Multimap, TeleAtlas;
IT Services: Xansa, Getronics, Covansys, Mandator.
The report also points to media companies hunger for digital media assets to address changes in consumer behaviour. It says the prices paid for such ventures "reflect demand". For example, Disney acquired Penguin Club social networking site for $350M. Icon says that price was 35 x forward sales.
As for IPOs, Icon focused on the the UK market, which had a "reasonably good year" for new listings. Icon writes:
The largest IPO was Moneysupermarket.com, the finance price comparison website which raised £170m in July. Telecity also did well raising £96m in October well after the credit crunch had hit, it said.
Posted on January 16, 2008 10:05 AM | Posted to | Permalink
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