Category: Europe

Telefónica nabs cloud hosting firm acens Technologies

Ben Kolada

Contact: Ben Kolada

Consolidation between the telecommunications and hosting industries continued today with Madrid-based telco Telefónica purchasing cloud hosting and colocation provider acens Technologies from buyout shop Nazca Capital. Although this deal seems to be just another in the long line of telco-hosting pairings, it actually represents one of the biggest foreign consolidations that we’ve seen.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed, though public reports claim that Telefónica shelled out approximately €75m ($110m) for the hosting vendor. With some loose math based on applying acens’ historical growth rate to the €30m ($43m) in revenue that Nazca claims acens generated in 2009, we estimate that the company’s 2010 total revenue was likely in the ballpark of €35-40m ($46-53m). If our estimates are correct, that price-to-sales valuation would be slightly less than what Nazca paid for acens in January 2007, though it would still represent a nearly 100% return on capital in just four years. We’ll have more context on this deal, including analysis from our cloud infrastructure and hosting colleagues at Tier1 Research, in a full report in tomorrow’s Daily 451.

A valuable deal for Groupon

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

As it preps for its public debut, we note that Groupon, the coupon giant known for offering consumers deals up to 90% off, did a bit of smart bargain shopping of its own last summer as it made an important purchase to expand business in Europe. In May 2010, Groupon picked up Berlin-based CityDeal, a Groupon clone that’s posting growth that far outstrips the already astronomical rate at the acquiring company. CityDeal wasn’t even a year old when Groupon scooped it up, although it managed to generate approximately $450m in annualized revenue in 2010. For comparison, in its first year of existence, Groupon posted $30m in sales.

Groupon has since followed up the CityDeal acquisition with about a dozen other small deal-a-day sites across the globe. However, CityDeal remains the foundation for Groupon’s international operations, a business that is growing faster and has a higher gross margin than Groupon’s original operations in North America. Groupon now gets more revenue from outside its home country than from inside, which is an almost unheard of rate of internationalization for a three-year-old startup.

Given the contribution that CityDeal is making to Groupon’s financials, it’s worth remembering that Groupon only paid $125m in stock for the acquisition. Another way to look at it is that Groupon gave away about 10% of the equity of the company (roughly 41 million shares) for a company that now accounts for more than half its business. Of course, CityDeal’s owners took their payment in equity, so they will undoubtedly see their shares soar on the public market – far above the roughly $1bn valuation Groupon had when it acquired their company. (Valuations of around $20bn for Groupon on the public market are being kicked around right now.) As we think about that deal, it strikes us as a fitting structure for Groupon to use, in that the true value isn’t realized at the time of purchase, but at the point of redemption.

US telcos feeling the squeeze

Ben Kolada

Contact: Ben Kolada

Amid double-digit revenue growth in the cloud infrastructure market, US telcos are increasingly buying their way into this industry in an effort to stem losses in their traditional wireline businesses. However, just as the hosting and colocation sectors are growing rapidly, so too are the major players being acquired. So far this year, we’ve already seen three of the largest hosters scooped up by eager telco service providers, with CenturyLink’s $2.5bn Savvis purchase being the most recent. If the remaining telcos don’t move fast enough, they could increasingly be squeezed out of the growing cloud infrastructure space. And competition for the remaining firms is expected to increase as foreign operators could look to enter the US market as well.

Atlanta-based Internap Network Services is among the short list of firms most likely to be taken out next. The company has a wide-reaching geographic footprint, with facilities spread throughout the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company’s large US and international presence makes it a particularly attractive target, especially for large CLECs such as tw telecom and PAETEC, or even cable MSO Comcast. However, its footprint could also attract foreign operators looking for synergies in their home markets, as well as entry into the US market. My colleague Antonio Piraino at Tier1 Research recently penned a piece reminding buyout speculators that just a few years ago Internap rebuffed a takeover offer from Indian telco Reliance Communications. He notes that Reliance may once again be a potential suitor, alongside Asian firms Pacnet and China Telecom or European provider Colt Technology Services Group.

Though opportunities for US acquisitions are diminishing, domestic telcos still have options. Given the hyper-competitive takeover market that is expected for remaining US hosters, US telcos may instead look for international deals. As seen by regional stalwart Cincinnati Bell’s CyrusOne unit expanding into London, US telcos are showing no fear of international expansion when it comes to their hosting and colocation businesses. If US telcos look abroad, we wouldn’t be surprised if they checked out Interxion. The Schiphol-Rijk, Netherlands-based firm operates 28 datacenters in 11 countries spread throughout Europe, and pulled in more than €200m in revenue in 2010, a 21% jump from the previous year.

Oracle: The giant moves quietly in M&A

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

For a giant of a company, Oracle certainly strikes quietly when it moves to pick up some companies. Consider its latest purchase, the as-yet-unannounced acquisition of data-quality vendor Datanomic. Although Oracle hasn’t formally announced the purchase, the company does have it listed on its Web page for acquisitions. (That listing followed speculation by several market sources last week that Oracle had indeed sealed the deal.)

Oracle has already shown that it is ready to spend to buy in the data-quality market. A little more than a year ago, Oracle reached for Silver Creek Systems, an OEM partner that provided product-oriented data quality. Shortly after that transaction was announced, my colleague Krishna Roy speculated that Datanomic might be the next data-quality-related vendor to get snapped up, highlighting both Oracle and IBM as possible buyers for the UK-based company. We believe that Big Blue did look at Datanomic, which it considered a nice complement to the business it got when it bought Initiate Systems in early 2010. (Initiate had an OEM arrangement with Datanomic.)

Fittingly for a deal that wasn’t really announced, financials also weren’t revealed. Our understanding is that Datanomic had been posting strong growth recently, increasing revenue some 60% last year to about $15m. That rate, combined with the fact that there were undoubtedly other large bidders for Datanomic, make us absolutely confident that this transaction is significantly larger than Oracle’s related purchase of Silver Creek, which we estimate went off at $40m or so. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it was in the neighborhood of twice that amount.

Ma Bell’s mobile move

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

In the largest US telco deal in a half-decade, AT&T will hand over $39bn in cash and stock for T-Mobile USA. Assuming it goes through, the combination would create the country’s largest wireless provider, with some 130 million subscribers. The consolidation move, which has been a hallmark of AT&T over the past decade, would give the carrier one-third more wireless subscribers than second-place Verizon and more than twice the number of Sprint.

Clearly conscious of its increased market share, AT&T took a number of steps – both in language and in terms – to blunt criticism and concerns over the concentration. For instance, in its release AT&T tosses a sop to regulators by portraying this move as a step to connecting ‘every part of America to the digital age’ – a quote borrowed from President Obama and backed by the Federal Communications Commission. (The FCC and the US Department of Justice will likely cast a sharp eye on the planned deal, which AT&T hopes to close in a year or so.) And, in an effort to shore up populist support, AT&T highlights in its release that it is the only major wireless carrier to be a union shop. We can’t remember the last time a major acquirer trumpeted its union status in an M&A release.

Aside from the spin in the official release, the terms of the proposed transaction also appear to us to be structured with an eye toward knocking down as much uncertainty as possible. For instance, AT&T collared the $14bn in stock that it is set to give to T-Mobile USA’s parent Deutsche Telekom. (Although, at least based on Wall Street’s initial reaction, that wasn’t necessary as investors actually nudged the Dow component 1% higher.) But what really caught our eye was the stiff breakup fee: if AT&T has to walk away from the deal, it will be on the hook for a $3bn payment, as well as have to transfer an undefined chuck of spectrum to its would-be partner. That’s a lot of incentive to get it closed.

Nokia + Microsoft = Love?

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

Maybe it’s the fact that today is Valentine’s Day and love is in the air, but we’ve been thinking about the recent closeness of Nokia and Microsoft in a whole new way. Recall that the Finnish handset maker said on Friday that it’ll be basically breaking up with its own OS to start dating Windows Phone. ‘You’re just not doing it for me anymore,’ the hardware told the software before also asking Symbian to clean its stuff out of their previously shared house. ‘Don’t forget your toothbrush.’

By dumping its longtime partner, Nokia has cleared the way for a new relationship with Microsoft, which looks like a compatible union to our eyes. After all, both giants are on a slow fade right now, largely watching while the rest of the mobile industry passes them by. (To put that into human terms, we can’t help but envision Nokia and Microsoft as a somewhat elderly couple, more likely to watch On Golden Pond (on VHS, no less) than to head out to the theater and catch The Social Network, for instance.)

Have these companies truly been struck by Cupid’s arrow? Is the ‘strategic alliance’ just a bit of handholding before a proper marriage? Well, from our view, an acquisition – although still unlikely – is less unlikely than before. Why? For one thing, the block to this long-rumored pairing has always been that Microsoft wouldn’t want to jeopardize its relationships with other device makers by settling fully on Nokia.

But frankly, that’s less of a concern now if only because Windows Phone has been left behind, even by hardware makers that have long relied on Microsoft for software to power their computers. For instance, Dell has largely embraced Google’s rival OS, Android, for its tablets. And Hewlett-Packard went out and dropped $1bn on Palm Inc to have its own OS for devices rather than continue to run Microsoft’s mobile OS. Given that many of its former partners have already paired off, maybe Microsoft believes the time is now to tie up with Nokia, for better and for worse.

KIT buys in bulk

Ben Kolada

Contact: Ben Kolada

No stranger to inorganic growth, video asset management provider KIT digital just announced three acquisitions worth $77m. The company’s recent dealmaking brings its total M&A spending to $151m since 2006 – a hefty sum considering that KIT currently sports just a $350m market cap. While similarly sized firms might stop for a breather, KIT plans to announce another large purchase by the end of the quarter.

KIT has bought KickApps, Kyte and Kewego as it continues to consolidate the video asset management market and add social media to its platform. Kyte, the least expensive of the three targets, will provide KIT with mobile video content delivery while Paris-based Kewego provides a video distribution software platform for internal communications to enterprises in the EMEA region. KickApps, arguably the most valuable of the acquired assets, provides social media software for interactive video to enterprises. (A side note: KickApps is betting the farm on the role that social media will play in KIT’s evolving business – the company’s equity holders took their $45m payout entirely in KIT digital stock.)

As if announcing three acquisitions at once isn’t enough, the company claims to be on track to close another large transaction by the end of the quarter. KIT wouldn’t comment on who its next target would be, and the video asset management market is still too fragmented to tell which companies are on KIT’s radar. But we expect that the new target will continue KIT’s M&A strategy of buying companies for geographic expansion, entry into new verticals and complementary technology. KIT will pay for its new property out of the proceeds from its recently closed IPO, which netted $103m.

KIT’s triple play

Date closed Target Deal value Target adviser Acquirer adviser
January 28, 2011 KickApps $44.7m America’s Growth Capital Janney Montgomery Scott
January 26, 2011 Kewego $26.7m Not disclosed No adviser used
January 25, 2011 Kyte $5.7m GrowthPoint Technology Partners No adviser used

Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase

Verizon pays sky-high price for cloud provider Terremark

Ben Kolada

Contact: Ben Kolada

In a move to accelerate its cloud services, Verizon has announced that it is acquiring cloud and colocation provider Terremark for $1.4bn. As the largest pairing between a telco and a colocation provider, the deal is not only a landmark transaction for the telecommunications industry, but also a significant shift from the growing trend of telcos buying their way into the hosting and colocation sectors by acquiring pure colocation providers.

Verizon is paying $19 per share in cash, a 35% premium over Terremark’s closing price. On an equity value basis, the deal values the target at 4.4 times trailing sales and 18.6x trailing EBITDA. For comparison, the next-largest telco-colo pairing came in May 2010 when Cincinnati Bell bought pure colocation provider CyrusOne for $525m, or 9.1x trailing sales and 16.4x trailing EBITDA. Both Verizon and Terremark’s board of directors have unanimously approved the transaction, and Verizon expects to complete the deal by the end of the first quarter. Terremark’s management team will remain and will operate the company as a wholly owned but independent subsidiary of Verizon.

While earlier acquisitions in this sector were valued based on the growth potential of colocation services, Terremark garnered a higher valuation because of its cloud portfolio, as well as its international presence. During their conference call discussing the acquisition, executives from both companies highlighted the fact that Terremark’s long-term growth lies in its cloud and managed services. This segment provided half of Terremark’s total service revenue during the first six months of its fiscal 2011. Beyond cloud services, the acquisition is also a geographic fit, with Terremark providing Verizon an expanded presence in Latin America, and Verizon providing Terremark additional room to grow in both the US and Europe. As part of the integration, Terremark will assume operations for all of Verizon’s 220 datacenters. (We’ll have a full report on this deal in tonight’s Daily 451.)

After the transaction was announced, shares of competing cloud computing firms soared. While the sector calmed somewhat by midday, shares of Savvis held onto its 15% advance as Wall Street speculated that it might be the next hosting and services company to get snapped up. (Trading in Savvis was more than 10 times its daily average on Friday.) By revenue, the Chesterfield, Missouri-based firm is the largest provider of cloud and colocation services and already sports a $1.7bn market capitalization. As a result, the list of potential suitors is limited, but AT&T stands out as an obvious bidder for Savvis. Just as Savvis is the largest provider among cloud firms, AT&T is the largest provider among telcos and closed 2010 with $124bn in revenue and $1.4bn in cash in its coffers.

Kaspersky catches some cash

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

Add General Atlantic (GA) to the list of buyout firms that has picked up a stake in an information security vendor. The firm on Thursday acquired a 20% chunk of Russian antivirus software provider Kaspersky Lab for $200m, implying an overall valuation of $1bn. The deal marks the third significant investment by a private equity (PE) shop in a European anti-malware vendor in just the past six months.

GA also appears to have gotten a bargain in becoming the company’s second-largest shareholder. Kasperky’s $1bn valuation works out to about 2 times sales and 8-9x EBITDA, according to our understanding. For comparison, rival anti-malware vendor Sophos got more than 3x trailing sales when it sold a majority stake to Apax Partners last May. (And according to at least two sources, Kaspersky was targeting a valuation of ‘well north’ of $1bn when it was running the process, which took most of 2010.) The third recent antivirus deal was Summit Partners’ $100m investment in AVAST Software last August.

Ariba ‘mines’ for its latest deal

Brenon Daly

Contact: Brenon Daly

After three years out of the market, Ariba returned to M&A on Thursday with the $150m purchase of Quadrem. Both the current deal and the previous one help bolster the supply-chain vendor’s offering in new markets. In the case of Procuri, which was acquired in September 2007, Ariba picked up a company that was targeting small businesses. With its latest transaction, Ariba adds an offering geared for corporate giants, specifically some of the largest mining companies on earth. It also gets further into markets outside the US.

Quadrem was founded 10 years ago, and is still majority owned by a quartet of multinational mining giants (BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Vale SA). While sales to mining companies accounted for essentially all of Quadrem’s revenue in its early days, the vendor diversified into other industries in recent years. Currently, mining generates about half of Quadrem’s revenue, with the other half coming from other industries such as oil and gas as well as manufacturing.

Under terms of the deal, Quadrem’s four principal companies have extra incentive to keep using Quadrem even after the sale to Ariba closes, which is expected by next March. The reason: Ariba has held back $25m in payment and will kick in another $25m to the four companies as long as they are still using the network three years from now. Ariba says it expects to pay out the full amount. (Morgan Stanley advised Ariba on its purchase.)

Assuming that Ariba does indeed hand over the full $150m, the transaction would value Quadrem a smidge above two times this year’s projected sales of about $70m. For its part, Ariba trades at more than twice that valuation. It currently garners a market cap of about $1.7bn, compared to projected sales for calendar 2010 of about $370m. Incidentally, since Ariba last announced an acquisition three years ago, its shares have basically doubled while the Nasdaq has flatlined.