2011-01-10 Berkery Noyes Releases 2010 Information Industry Merger & Acquisition Trends

Berkery Noyes, a leading middle market investment bank, has released its 2010 Information M&A Trends Report. This report analyzes merger and acquisition activity in the Information Industry in 2010 and compares it with activity in the three previous years.

Transaction volume in 2010 surpassed 2009 by 36 percent, climbing to 2,046 transactions. This is the highest volume of activity the information industry has seen since Berkery Noyes began tracking deals. Transaction value has increased by 36 percent as well, with $112 billion in aggregate acquisition value.

The median revenue and EBITDA multiple both increased over 2009, with the revenue multiple rising to 1.8 and the EBITDA multiple to 11.2, a 29 percent increase over the 8.7 of 2009.

“Multiples have started to make a return to pre-crisis levels,” said James Berkery, CIO of Berkery Noyes. “There are more deals happening and there are higher valuations. While we’re not at the levels we saw in 2007, I think we’re well on the road to recovery.”

Strategic acquirers have been the most common acquirer in the industry, yet financially sponsored transactions rose 39 percent by value over 2009 while losing 2 percent in volume over 2009. This trend of larger financially sponsored transactions is further evidenced by two of the top seven deals by value this year being made by financial acquirers: Interactive data Corporation’s acquisition by Warbug Pincus and Silver Lake Partners for $3.2 billion and Visma ASA’s acquisition by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $1.9 billion.

Google was not only the most active buyer in the information industry in 2010, with 28 acquisitions, but was also the most active buyer from 2007 through 2010, with 48 transactions during that time.