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Dec 16, 2015

Is Precision Wellness more important than Personalized Medicine?

Healthcare Newsletter , , , 0 Comments

This week, we published our latest market update on the Healthcare Information Technology (“HIT”) sector. You can read it here. We observe that the answer to the question: Why do Innovations matter? – is that the best ones advance humanity and enhance the quality of our lives. Further, we observe that innovations essentially fall into one of two categories – we like to call them ‘disruptive’ vs. ‘breakthrough’ innovations. Disruptive innovations use new methods or technologies to disrupt an existing process or product. Email, wireless telephony and robotic manufacturing are good examples of disruptive innovations. These innovations wring out inefficiencies…

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Dec 14, 2015

Looking Past the Unicorns to the Middle Market – The Sweet Spot

In the News, Valuation , , , , 0 Comments

A quick look through today’s business headlines and you’ll see reports of massive capital raises and eye-popping valuations for some of the so called “Unicorns” – young, fast-growing, privately held (VC-backed) technology / technology-enabled companies valued at $1 billion and above. Some of these firms are very impressive, growing more than 100% per annum and raising hundreds of millions from private investors. Some are working on finding an appropriate way and time to give investors liquidity at a suitable value. Few this year have found strategic buyers: Lynda.com (LinkedIn) and Virtustream (EMC), for example. According to CB Insights, through Q3’15…

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Dec 3, 2015

GRC Keeps Rolling

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The term GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) has been around for a while now. Gartner has covered it in one form or another since the early 2000’s. The last decade of regulations – Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA, Basel III, Solvency II, regional rules and more – have put unprecedented pressure on corporations, leading to the explosion of GRC solutions. Firms have shifted away from spreadsheets and homegrown solutions to GRC focused software vendors as GRC needs become more complex and involve a wider set of stakeholders. This market maturation brings the potential for a new wave of M&A consolidation as vendors race to…

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Dec 1, 2015

No Need To Go Public?

In the News , , , 0 Comments

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Telis Demos and Corrie Driebusch presented a solid case for the downtick in IPOs – companies prefer to go the M&A route, especially in volatile financial markets. We concur but actually the M&A route is only part of the story. It’s important to think about why companies want to go public in the first place. Reasons may include liquidity for shareholders and employees, capital for growth, currency for acquisitions and probably ego, all are part of the IPO equation. As M&A bankers we discuss the viability of an IPO with a lot of businesses and…

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Dec 1, 2015

FinTech Disruptors Drive Visa and Visa Europe Combination

In the News , , 0 Comments

Earlier this month, Visa Inc. announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Visa Europe for €21.2 billion (upfront consideration: €11.5 billion in cash and €5.0 billion in convertible preferred stock; contingent consideration: €4.7 billion). We believe this transaction makes strategic sense for Visa, and the valuation multiples were not as high as some have reported. Nevertheless, the integration, particularly related to technology, will be challenging as reflected by the $450 to $500 million in integration costs expected over the next 5 years. In addition, the ability for Visa Europe to move from a bank-owned, cooperative pricing model…

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