Contact: Brenon Daly
While tech acquirers weren’t especially ‘spendy’ last month, they certainly were busy. The number of tech, media and telecom (TMT) transactions announced in the just-completed month of July topped 420, a record level since at least the credit crisis, according to 451 Research’s M&A KnowledgeBase. Acquisitions last month by many of the major tech bellwethers – including Microsoft, Cisco, HP, IBM, Amazon and eBay – helped push deal volume about 40% higher than the average monthly total for the past three years.
It wasn’t just the big buyers, either. A number of smaller acquirers also stepped back into the market in July. Yahoo put up its first print of 2015 at the end of July, after inking 19 acquisitions last year. (The search giant had made 11 purchases by this time last year.) Additionally, Groupon, Callidus and Zillow all got on the board for the first time this year with July transactions. Meanwhile, both Time Inc and Accenture announced three deals last month.
The almost unprecedented activity translated into only marginal spending, however. Acquirers spent just $22.7bn on TMT transactions across the globe last month, according to the KnowledgeBase . While that roughly matches the average monthly spending for the post-recession period of 2010-14, it is the second-lowest monthly spending total for this year’s record romp, and is less than half the average value of deals announced monthly in the first half of 2015.
Of course, the July activity comes on the heels of record-setting spending in the April-June quarter. (See our full report on the blockbuster Q2, where the value of acquisitions announced hit an astounding $200bn, the highest quarterly level in 15 years.) While spending last month fell short of other recent months, it nonetheless keeps 2015 on track for a new post-bubble annual record. So far this year, TMT dealmakers have spent $345bn on transactions, just $70bn less than the record years of 2006 and 2007.
2015 monthly deal flow
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Source: 451 Research’s M&A KnowledgeBase