The ‘state of the union’ for tech unions

Contact: Brenon Daly

To get a sense of what we might see in tech M&A in 2012, we looked back on the previous year to highlight some of the trends and marquee transactions that we expect to continue to shape the market. In our annual ‘state of the union’ report, we noted that both the number of IT, telecom and Internet deals as well as the spending on them last year posted a mid-teen percentage increase over 2010.

And while the gain may seem pretty straightforward, getting there was rather erratic. We saw spending hit its highest level in August, but then get dragged down to anemic levels in the following months amid concerns about European debt levels. Spending on deals in Q4 actually declined from 2010 – the only quarter last year to do so. Still, we see a number of drivers, which we highlight in our report, that should keep dealmakers busy over the coming year.

Overall tech M&A activity

Year Total volume Total value
2011 3,696 $219bn
2010 3,261 $187bn
2009 3,026 $147bn
2008 3,014 $301bn
2007 3,640 $432bn
2006 4,029 $457bn
2005 3,040 $373bn
2004 2,081 $226bn
2003 1,508 $62bn
2002 1,921 $83bn

Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase