Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its First Quarter 2012 Mergers and Acquisitions Trend Report for the Information Industry.

The Information Industry report is defined by Berkery Noyes as covering all Media and Marketing, Software, and Online and Mobile companies. The report analyzes merger and acquisition activity from January 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

Transaction volume remained constant compared to the previous quarter. The median EBITDA multiple increased 27 percent over Q4 2011, rising from 9.6x to 12.2x. However, the median revenue multiple fell from 2.2x to 1.6x.

14 percent of the 797 deals in Q1 2012 were backed by Private Equity firms. The Riverside Company was the most active Private Equity acquirer in the first quarter. Riverside acquired DentalPlans.com, BrandMuscle, YourMembership.com, EthicsPoint, and TradeOne Marketing. The largest Private Equity transaction in the Information Industry was Advent International and GS Capital Partners’ announced acquisition of TransUnion for $3.1 billion.

There were also several data management information deals in Q1 2012, including Perceptive Software’s announced acquisition of Brainware and cybertap’s announced acquisition of DejaVu Technologies. According to James Berkery, Chief Information Officer at Berkery Noyes, “there is a market need for software solutions that are capable of deconstructing large amounts of data from the Web. Connotate’s acquisition of Fetch Technologies, which will result in a merger between the two companies, is a good example of M&A with the goal of meeting demand for big data aggregation. Companies are recognizing the need to improve their analytics tools, and the aforementioned acquisition shows the desirability for improved and more structured data management."

Furthermore, Lexmark International had three enterprise content management acquisitions through Perceptive Software, a stand-alone business unit within the printing company. In addition to Brainware, Lexmark acquired ISYS Search Software and Nolij Corporation during the first quarter.

A copy of the Q1 2012 INFORMATION INDUSTRY MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS REPORT is available at the Berkery Noyes website.