“Towers Watson’s M&A practice recently published the results of Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor (QDPM), which is conducted in partnership with Cass Business School, and has examined the data on all deals over $100 million completed in 2012. The results are really interesting, especially when you look at what was happening in the public markets. In 2012, there were 94 deals in the tech sector with an average value of $717 million. In 2012, there were 768 M&A deals across all sectors above $100 million.
Compare this to 2011 which saw 75 tech M&A deals with an average value of $512 million. Why the jump? One theory is that it’s a combination of the softening of IPO opportunities for large companies, as well as some of the effects of the rise in valuations over the past year.
Amid Facebook’s surprising negative performance on the public markets, and the plummet in value of other tech stocks like Groupon and Zynga, going public at a billion-plus valuation wasn’t as appealing as exiting at a fairly high valuation….”
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