2010-07-09 Berkery Noyes Releases First Half 2010 Private Equity Information Industry Merger & Acquisition Trends – Steady As PE Goes

New York – NEW YORK — Berkery Noyes, a leading middle market investment bank, has released its 2010 Half Year Private Equity Information Industry M&A Trends Report. This report analyzes merger and acquisition activity of private equity companies in the Information Industry for the first half of 2010 and compares it with activity in the four previous sixth month periods.

Median revenue multiples in Private Equity M&A activity fell slightly in the 1st Half of 2010, from 2.5 to 2.2, yet this number still represents a 100% increase from the revenue multiple low of 1.1 in 1st Half 2009.

Private Equity M&A activity saw a 22% increase in volume from 117 transactions in 2nd Half 2009 to 143 transactions in 1st Half 2010, a total that exceeds each of the four preceding sixth month periods. Of particular note, the Business & Compliance sector grew by 55% from 11 to 17 transactions.

Total aggregate value of transactions decreased by 9% from $14.82 billion in 2nd Half 2009 to $13.54 billion in 1st Half 2010, despite a tremendous gain in the Financial Services & Accounting sector, which rose 2,512% from $313 million in 2nd Half 2009 to $8.19 billion in 1st Half 2010.

The top three acquisitions by value in 1st Half 2010 all originated within the Financial Services & Accounting segment: Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners’ pending acquisition of Interactive Data Corporation, which is majority owned by Pearson plc, for $3.25 billion, TPG Capital’s announced acquisition of Vertafore, Inc. for $1.40 billion, and MSCI, Inc.’s announced acquisition of RiskMetrics Group, Inc. for $1.39 billion.