2012 Key Highlights

  • The most active acquirer in 2012 was WPP Group, plc with 42 transactions. WPP’s largest transaction during the year was its announced acquisition of AKQA for $540 million.
  • There were 465 financially sponsored transactions in 2012 with an aggregate value of 49.70 billion, representing 14 percent of the total volume and 31 percent of the total value, respectively.

2012 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2012 increased by three percent over 2011, from 3,317 to 3,412.
  • Total transaction value in 2012 decreased by 10 percent over 2011, from $171.41 billion to $153.53 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple moved slightly from 2.0x in 2011 to 1.9x in 2012. The median EBITDA multiple fell from 11.5x in 2011 to 10.0x in 2012.
  • Four of the Information Industry’s top ten highest value deals were backed by financial sponsors in 2012, compared to two in 2011.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 9,529 transactions between 2010 and 2012, of which 3,028 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $353.99 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 6,501 undisclosed transactions to be $86.04 billion, totaling $440.03 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 36 months were 1.8x revenue and 10.7x EBITDA.

The largest transaction tracked by Berkery Noyes since 2010 was HP’s acquisition of Autonomy plc for $10.24 billion in 2011.

Based on value, the largest acquirer, either directly or through an affiliated business between 2010 and 2012, was Microsoft Corporation with 12 transactions. Microsoft’s highest value deal in 2012 was its acquisition of Yammer for $1.20 billion.