Dear Clients & Friends,
Below is a link to our March 2012 Market Update. As you will see, it provides our sense of M&A values, activity and trends for the dozen plus technology, information and healthcare sectors that we follow.
Click here for our Market Update
This month M&A announced two transactions on which we advised: In the Financial Technology sector, we advised NYSE Euronext on the acquisition of minority interest in Fixnetix Ltd (London, UK). And in the Healthcare IT vertical, we advised Navinet, Inc., on the sale to Lumeris Corporation, the innovative, cloud-based health IT provider; Pittsburgh-based, Highmark Inc., Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and southeastern Pennsylvania’s Independence Blue Cross.
Of course, the other news for the Exchange sector was the failed $7.4Bn between New York Stock Exchange and German exchange Deutsche Börse. The planned merger was called off after the European Union said it would block the union because of concerns about a monopoly.
This month we saw the announcements of four transactions with values over $1Bn. Again, the majority of transactions were well under $200M. This reinforces our belief that strategics and financial sponsors are showing a willingness to pay reasonable values for complimentary firms that show scale, growth, and proprietary technology, but have little appetite for mega-deals.
A few of the notable deals:
- Itau Unibanco Acquired Redecard S.A. for R$11.8Bn ($6.8Bn);
- Oracle Corporation Agreed To Acquire Taleo Corp for $1.8Bn;
- Misys plc Agreed To Acquire Temenos Group AG for £926M (USD $1.2Bn), however, the bidding isn’t over;
- Glory Limited Agreed to Acquire Talaris Topco Limited from Carlyle Group LP for £650M ($1.02Bn);
- TPG Agreed to Acquire GlobeOp Financial Services for £508M ($802M);
- The Hearst Corporation Acquired Additional 10% Stake in Fitch Group for $177M.
As you will see in the report, a few deals showed strategics diverging from their core focus: As examples, TELUS, a wireless telecommunications provider, purchased Wolf Medical Systems, a cloud-based electronic health record, while Verizon entered a partnership with Health Evolution Partners to gain a pipeline of health technologies. We do not see a return to the diversification trend of the 1960’s.
We hope you will find this month’s newsletter useful. We are always available to answer questions.