1st Half 2009 Key Highlights

  • The largest announced transaction for the 1st Half of 2009 was Charter House Capital Partners’ acquisition of Wood Mackenzie from Candover Partners Ltd. for $914 million.
  • The segments with the largest transaction volume for 1st Half of 2009 were Science & Technology and Lifestyle & Entertainment with 15 transactions.
  • The most active buyers announced for the 1st Half of 2009, by way of volume of transactions either purchased direct or through partner or affiliated business, were Veronis Suhler Stevenson (HealthCommunities.com, Inc., Voyager Learning Company, Two Tradeshows from Technology Systems Corporation and Medical Education Partnership, Ltd.) and The Carlyle Group (MAXIMIS software from Unisys Corporation, 10East Corporation, Evare, LLC and Wellsphere) with 4 purchases each.

1st Half 2009 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in the 1st Half of 2009 decreased by 13 percent over the 1st Half of 2008 from 110 in 2008 to 96 in 2009.
  • Total transaction value in the 1st Half of 2009 decreased by 80 percent over the 1st Half of 2008, from $14.04 billion in 2008 to $2.77 billion in 2009.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

The most active buyer, in terms of volume between 2007 and the 1st Half of 2009, was Veronis Suhler Stevenson with 25 transactions.

Between 2007 and the 1st Half of 2009 transactions receiving enterprise values greater than $160 million garnered the higher median enterprise value multiple of 2.5 times revenue which is 57 percent greater than companies who received enterprise values of $10 to $20 million which captured a median enterprise value of 1.59 times revenue.

In terms of value, the most active market segment that Berkery Noyes tracked between 2007 and the 1st Half of 2009 was Lifestyle & Entertainment with an aggregate transaction value of $73.21 billion. The least active segment was Construction & Real Estate with an aggregate transaction value of $1.86 billion.