Dear Clients and Friends,
Welcome to our March 2013 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
As was evident this month, the demand by strategic firms and financial sponsors for mid-sized software firms has not slowed. This month, strategics continued to make acquisitions that enhanced their core services. Examples include Hyland Software’s acquisition of AnyDoc and Linedata’s acquisition of CapitalStream. Also, some strategics are willing to make investments in growth areas, as exemplified by Pearson’s investment in TutorVista and the London Stock Exchange’s stake in GATElab. The rapid pace of healthcare M&A activity by strategics also continues, as many HIT companies seek to expand their footprint. The acquisition of Humedica by Optum and dbMotion by Allscripts are indicative of this trend. While financial sponsors continue to actively pursue mid-size firms that demonstrate and have an ability to scale, after a busy Q4 2012, actual transactions by financial sponso rs declined this month in the sectors that we cover.
Some other notable recent deals include:
• Total System Services (NYSE:TSS) agreed to acquire NetSpend Holdings (NASDAQ:NTSP) for $1.3B;
• ION Group agreed to acquire FFastFill (AIM:FFA) for £70M ($112M);
• Computershare (ASX:CPU) agreed to acquire EMEA-based Portion of Morgan Stanley’s Global Stock Plan Services for $48.5M;
• ICG Group (NASDAQ:ICGE) acquired a majority control of SeaPass Solutions for $13M;
• BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) invested in Credit Suisse’s (SWX:CSGN) FastMatch Electronic Communication Network; and
• Elavon acquired Collective Point of Sale Solutions from Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE:HPY).
Marlin & Associates is one of the most active investment banking and strategic advisory firms providing strategic and financial advice to worldwide buyers and sellers of middle-market technology firms. Our firm is headquartered in New York, NY and has additional offices in San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Toronto, Canada; and Hong Kong, China serving companies that provide information and technology to a wide range of communities including those that serve the banking, capital markets, insurance, marketing and healthcare arenas.
We trust that you will find this month’s newsletter useful. If you would like more information on these transactions or on our sense of the market, please feel free to call or write.