Berkery Noyes has just published its Q1 2013 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Information Industry. The report features companies in the Media and Marketing, Software, and Online and Mobile Industries and analyzes M&A activity during Q1 2013 and compares it with the past four quarters. A link to a free copy of the report is available at the end of this article.
According to Berkery Noyes, the transaction volume in the Information Industry decreased two percent since Q4 2012. Deal flow in the latter part of 2012 was driven by several factors, including an expected rise in capital gains taxes in the beginning of 2013.
In the first quarter, private equity acquirers accounted for 13 percent of the industry’s transaction volume, which was nearly the same as in Q4 2012. The Information Industry’s largest overall deal in Q1 2013 was CVC Capital Partners’ announced acquisition of Cerved Group, a corporate information database, for $1.5 billion.
Overall transaction value decreased 62 percent, from $45.3 billion in Q4 2012 to $17.4 billion in Q1 2013. The industry’s highest value during the last 15 months occurred in Q4 2012, which was one component behind this quarter-to-quarter value decrease. In addition, the median revenue multiple between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013 declined from 1.8x to 1.6x, while the median EBITDA multiple fell from 9.5x to 8.3x.
Mobile related transactions in the Information Industry rose 33 percent in Q1 2013. Notable acquirers in the mobile geo-location subset included Apple’s acquisition of WifiSlam and Groupon’s acquisition of Glassmap. In the Health & Pharmaceutics segment, the highest value deal in the quarter involved Epocrates, a mobile point-of-care medical application. Epocrates was acquired by Athena Health for $216 million.
Regarding other markets in the Information Industry, M&A volume in the broad based governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) space increased 17 percent between 2011 and 2012. There were several associated transactions within the finance vertical in Q1 2013, such as Temenos Group’s acquisition of TriNovus, a provider of SaaS based compliance solutions.
“The GRC market currently consists of vendors offering fragmented products on different systems,” said Peter Ognibene, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “This can lead to a business process that silos off various risks and data. GRC vendors are working to fix this problem by adding content and combining their package offerings, thereby enabling them to provide a holistic solution for their clients that measures and reports on a wide range of risk factors. Many companies are placing more of an emphasis on corporate governance and risk management in their day-to-day operations. This could allow for further consolidation as large GRC vendors make acquisitions to supplement their offerings.”
A free copy of the Q1 2013 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Information Industry is available by clicking HERE.
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 4-23-13
