Contact: Brenon Daly
The value of tech transactions announced across the globe in April more than doubled from last year, boosted by a topping bid in what would be the largest tech deal in a half-decade. Overall, tech acquirers spent some $32.8bn on 253 transactions in April, according to The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase.
However, last month’s spending was heavily skewed by DISH Network’s $25.5bn offer for Sprint Nextel. The satellite television provider, in a highly unusual move, is looking to derail the majority sale of Sprint Nextel to Japanese telco SoftBank. That transaction, which was announced last October, valued a 70% stake of Sprint Nextel at about $20bn.
One point to make about the concentrated deal flow: SoftBank’s bid for Sprint Nextel represented about 61% of total announced spending in October, while DISH’s offer represents 78% of all announced April spending. Excluding that blockbuster transaction, spending dropped to just $7.3bn – about half the spending in April 2012 and less than one-third the level of April 2011.
Further, in another sign of weakness last month, the number of announced acquisitions sank to just 253, representing a double-digit percentage decline compared with the same month of the two previous years. April’s paltry deal count continues the year-over-year declines in monthly M&A volume that we have seen in every month so far in 2013.
2013 activity, month by month
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Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase
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