2010-01-05 Berkery Noyes Releases 2009 Online & Wireless Merger & Acquisition Trends – E-Marketing & Search Finds Its Way

Online & Wireless Industry M&A activity exhibited mixed trends in 2009 with a volumetric decline but a rise in aggregate value. Volume declined by 12% from 720 deals in 2008 to 636 in 2009. Aggregate value increased by 5% from $24.68 billion in 2008 to $25.83 billion in 2009.

This increase in value is due in large part to a significant increase in the aggregate value of deals done in the E-Marketing & Search segment. The aggregate value of deals done in this segment was $3.21 billion in 2008 and $5.98 billion in 2009, an increase of 86%. Several large deals in this segment contributed to the increase in aggregate value, including Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture for $1.6 billion; Google’s acquisition of Admob for $750 million; and VivaKi’s acquisition of Razorfish for $530 million. All three of the aforementioned deals exceeded 2008’s largest transaction in the E-marketing & Search segment, which was Microsoft’s acquisition of Greenfield Online for $460 million.

Please note that for the purpose of evaluating a transaction, Berkery Noyes utilizes the price paid as opposed to enterprise value in order to avoid an inflated transaction value for deals where less than 100% of a company is being acquired.

Volumetrically, while there was a decline in activity for the year, 2nd half 2009 exhibited a 19% increase versus 1st half 2009, which was the first half-to-half increase in volume since activity peaked in 1st half 2007.

To read the free four page report Click Here