2012-04-03 Berkery Noyes Releases First Quarter 2012 Software Industry Mergers & Acquisitions Report

Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its First Quarter 2012 Mergers and Acquisitions Trend Report for the Software Industry.

Q1 2012 transaction value in the Software Industry increased 10 percent, whereas transaction volume declined 10 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Within the niche software classification, which is software designed to be used by specific vertical industries, software targeted to financial firms was one of the most active segments. The largest related deal for the quarter was Vista Equity Partners’ announced acquisition of Misys, a provider of banking and financial services software solutions, for $2 billion.

Upon deeper inspection, 52 percent of financial software deals in Q1 2012 were related to capital markets. According to Berkery Noyes managing director Peter Ognibene, “Big data is increasing the demands on trading, modeling, executing, and portfolio management.” Two niche capital markets software transactions, Envestnet’s announced acquisition of Tamarac and SEI Investments’ announced acquisition of NorthStar Systems International, pertained directly to wealth management.

Cloud computing is continuing to have a significant impact on the enterprise software landscape. Oracle’s announced acquisition of Taleo for $1.9 billion was the largest business software transaction in Q1 2012, while Blackbaud’s announced acquisition of Convio for $274 million was the tenth largest deal in the Software Industry.

Symantec Corporation’s announced acquisition of LiveOffice Corporation for $115 million was one of the largest infrastructure software transactions for the quarter. Regarding this segment, transactions with a specific focus on security increased 75 percent over Q4 2011. “As indicated by Safenet’s acquisition of Cryptocard, Alert Logic’s acquisition of Armorlogic, and TrustWave’s announced acquisition of M86 Security this quarter, there is healthy demand for companies offering cloud based and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cyber security solutions,” said Christopher Young, managing director at Berkery Noyes.

M&A relating to security was responsible for 30 percent of infrastructure software deals in the quarter, compared to 15 percent in Q4 2011. Several of these involved mobile security solutions. For instance, Symantec’s acquisition of Nukona and Odyssey Software, the company’s two other Q1 2012 deals, focus on security for mobile devices. Twitter’s January acquisition of Dasient, a cloud based company that helps avert malware attacks, shows the social networking site is committed to securing its user’s data. This comes in the aftermath of Twitter’s Q4 2011 acquisition on Whisper Systems, a security software startup for mobile platforms.

A copy of the Q1 2012 SOFTWARE INDUSTRY M&A TREND REPORT is available at the Berkery Noyes website.