2012-04-09 Berkery Noyes Releases First Quarter 2012 Online and Mobile Industry Mergers & Acquisitions Report
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Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its First Quarter 2012 Mergers and Acquisitions Trend Report for the Online and Mobile Industry.
Transaction volume declined four percent in Q1 2012. Meanwhile, deal value in the Online and Mobile Industry decreased 14 percent to $12.8 billion.
The top ten notable transactions list was dominated by the SaaS/ASP segment, which accounted for five of the largest deals. Oracle’s announced acquisition of Taleo for $1.8 billion, a SaaS/ASP acquisition, was the largest Online and Mobile transaction in the first quarter. E-Content comprised two of the top ten deals in Q1 2012, while each of the remaining segments was responsible for just one of the largest deals.
The only top ten E-Marketing and Search transaction in Q1 2012 was Singapore Telecommunications’ (SingTel’s) announced acquisition of Amobee for $321 million. “With this acquisition, SingTel is gaining a compelling range of technical expertise that should enable the company to benefit from the growing mobile advertising market,” said Berkery Noyes managing director Mary Jo Zandy. “Coupled with the proliferation of smartphones and the resilience of many emerging economies, M&A activity in mobile advertising appears to be robust for the foreseeable future.” Regarding mobile advertising technology companies that serve large enterprises, advertising executives are embracing a product development model that encourages them to collaborate with technical experts on a more regular basis.
Digital Marketing, examined as a subset of the E-marketing and Search segment, experienced a seven percent increase in M&A activity in Q1 2012. This represented a 46 percent increase compared to Q1 2011. One notable deal in this category that missed inclusion in the top ten list was Aegis’ announced acquisition of Roundarch for $125 million. Also within the Digital Marketing space, some mobile deals for the quarter included Publishers Clearing House’s acquisition of Liquid Wireless and CellTrust’s acquisition of RevMobile.
Although M&A in the Communications segment remained nearly constant during the last three months, transaction volume rose 70 percent relative to Q3 2011. According to Tom O’Connor, managing director at Berkery Noyes, “there were several interesting first quarter Healthcare transactions in the Communications segment. Besides Nuance Communication’s acquisition of Transcend Services, Lumeris and three Blues Plans acquired NaviNet, the nation’s largest real-time Healthcare communications network.”
A copy of the Q1 2012 ONLINE AND MOBILE INDUSTRY M&A TREND REPORT is available at the Berkery Noyes website.