Contact: Ben Kolada
Cloud infrastructure M&A activity set several records in the just-closed second quarter, due in large part to a rise in international dealmaking. We’ve been noticing a steady uptick in international M&A activity lately, as both foreign strategic acquirers and private equity (PE) firms look to consolidate fragmented sectors in their own backyard and abroad. While we noticed a diversity of deal flow in the first quarter, with companies being targeted in nine different countries, the majority of international M&A in Q2 focused on Canada- and UK-based companies. Targets based in those two countries accounted for about 70% of all foreign acquisitions.
For international deal flow, the most visible theme was consolidation in the Web hosting sectors in the UK. Iomart Group, Othello Technology Systems and Lloyds Development Capital each announced Web hosting deals in Q2. In fact, Web hosters accounted for all but one of the deals targeting a UK-based company. This news should be of particular interest to domain name registration and Web hosting giant The Go Daddy Group, which recently took an undisclosed investment by a group of private equity firms led by KKR. Go Daddy will use the newfound capital for international expansion, as well as product development, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it looked to M&A to grow its nascent European footprint.
International cloud infrastructure M&A
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Source: The 451 M&A KnowledgeBase