2012 Key Highlights

  • The most active financial sponsor in the Information Industry in 2012 was Vista Equity Partners with 12 transactions. Vista’s largest industry transaction during the year was its acquisition of Misys plc for $2.02 billion.
  • The top ten highest value deals in 2012 accounted for 51 percent of aggregate transaction value. The Carlyle Group was involved in two of the industry’s three largest private equity transactions, representing 15 percent of deal value in 2012.
  • There were 68 transactions in the Health & Pharmaceutics segment of the Information Industry in 2012. Two of these deals reached the $1 billion threshold: Veritas Capital Partners’ acquisition of Thomson Reuters’ Healthcare Business for $1.25 billion and One Equity Partners’ acquisition of M*Modal for $1.06 billion.

2012 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2012 increased by 13 percent over 2011, from 413 to 465.
  • Total transaction value in 2012 rose by 11 percent over 2011, from $36.74 billion to $40.79 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple declined from 1.8x in 2011 to 1.4x in 2012. Meanwhile, the median EBITDA multiple improved from 9.1x to 9.7x.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,224 transactions between 2010 and 2012, of which 358 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $84.17 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 866 undisclosed transactions to be $15.51 billion, totaling $99.68 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

In the Media and Marketing portion of the Information Industry, the most active financial sponsor by volume between 2010 and 2012, either directly or through an affiliated business, was Veronis Suhler Stevenson with 25 transactions. Six of these occurred in 2012.