2010 Key Highlights

  • The largest transaction in 2010 was Intel Corporation’s announced acquisition of McAfee, Inc. for $7.55 billion.
  • Google, Inc. was the most active software industry acquirer by volume, with 23 acquisitions: Widevine Technologies, Inc., Phonetic Arts, BlindType Inc., Plannr, Quiksee, SocialDeck Inc., Ångströ Inc., Like.com, Jambool, Inc., Slide, Inc., Development Tools For Java & Ajax from Instantiations, Inc., Metaweb Technologies, Inc., ITA Software, Invite Media, Inc., SimplifyMedia, Global IP Solutions, Bump Technologies Inc., LabPixies, Plink, Episodic Inc., DocVerse, reMail and Picnik, Inc.
  • There were 136 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $13.84 billion, representing 13 percent of the total volume and 17 percent of the total value, respectively.

2010 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume increased by 37 percent from 819 in 2009 to 1121 in 2010.
  • Total transaction value in 2010 increased by 103 percent from $38.29 billion in 2009 to $77.61 billion in 2010.
  • The median transaction value increased from $9.97 million to $19 million from 2009 to 2010, a 90 percent increase.
  • Consumer Software increased by 93 percent in volume from 74 transactions in 2009 to 143 in 2010.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 3813 transactions between 2007 and 2010, of which 1391 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $198.28 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 2422 undisclosed transactions to be $45.19 billion totaling $243.47 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past four years.

The largest transaction tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2007 and 2010 was Oracle Corporation’s acquisition of BEA Systems, Inc. for $7.97 billion completed in April of 2008.

Based on volume, the most active market segment that Berkery Noyes tracked between 2007 and 2010 was Niche Software with 1927 transactions. Based on value, the most active market segment was Business Software with $78.70 billion worth of transactions.