Private Equity Information Industry Merger & Acquisition Trends

Berkery Noyes full report


Financially sponsored M&A in the Information Industry improved 13 percent over the past twelve months and 34 percent relative to 2010. In contrast, transaction volume in the Information Industry as a whole, including deals completed by strategic acquirers, underwent only a three percent gain between 2011 and 2012.

2012 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• The most active financial sponsor in the Information Industry in
2012 was Vista Equity Partners with 12 transactions. Vista’s
largest industry transaction during the year was its acquisition
of Misys plc for $2.02 billion.
• The top ten highest value deals in 2012 accounted for 51
percent of aggregate transaction value. The Carlyle Group was
involved in two of the industry’s three largest private equity
transactions, representing 15 percent of deal value in 2012.
• There were 68 transactions in the Health & Pharmaceutical
segment of the Information Industry in 2012. Two of these
deals reached the $1 billion threshold: Veritas Capital Partners’
acquisition of Thomson Reuters’ Healthcare Business for $1.25
billion and One Equity Partners’ acquisition of M*Modal for
$1.06 billion.

2012 KEY TRENDS

• Total transaction volume in 2012 increased by 13 percent over
2011, from 413 to 465.
• Total transaction value in 2012 rose by 11 percent over 2011,
from $36.74 billion to $40.79 billion.
• The median revenue multiple declined from 1.8x in 2011 to 1.4x
in 2012. Meanwhile, the median EBITDA multiple improved from
9.1x to 9.7x.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,224 transactions between 2010 and 2012,
of which 358 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate
transaction value to be $84.17 billion. Based on known transaction
values, we project values of 866 undisclosed transactions to be
$15.51 billion, totaling $99.68 billion worth of transactions tracked
over the past three years.

In the Media and Marketing portion of the Information Industry, the
most active financial sponsor by volume between 2010 and 2012,
either directly or through an affiliated business, was Veronis Suhler
Stevenson with 25 transactions. Six of these occurred in 2012.