1ST HALF 2012 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Montagu Private Equity’s acquisition of The College of Law of England and Wales was the largest transaction for 1st Half 2012, with an acquisition price of $316 million.
  • The most active acquirer in the Education Industry was Providence Equity Partners Inc. with three transactions: Moodlerooms, Inc., NetSpot Pty Ltd and E*Value. The acquisitions of Moodlerooms, Inc. and NetSpot Pty Ltd were completed by Blackboard Inc, which became a portfolio company of Providence Equity Partners in 2011.
  • There were 39 financially sponsored transactions in 1st Half 2012, with an aggregate value of and $847 million, representing 31 percent of the total volume and 53 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2012 KEY TRENDS

  • Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2012 increased by three percent over 2nd Half 2011, from 122 to 126.
  • Total transaction value in 1st Half 2012 decreased by 74 percent over 2nd Half 2011, from $6.23 billion to $1.65 billion. Deal value in second half 2011 was skewed by a few large acquisitions, mainly those of SunGard Higher Education and Blackboard.
  • The median revenue multiple declined from 1.9x in 2nd Half 2011 to 1.6x in 1st Half 2012. The median EBITDA multiple decreased from 14.0x to 13.6x.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 597 transactions between 2010 and 2012, of which 189 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $19.91 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 408 undisclosed transactions to be $835 million, totaling $20.74 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report were 10.4x EBITDA and 1.9x revenue.

The most active acquirer by volume over the past two and a half years was Pearson plc with 20 transactions, including two thus far in 2012: GlobalEnglish Corporation and Certiport, Inc.