Q1 2012 Information Industry Trends Report

With 797 transactions in Q1 2012, Information Industry transaction volume remained constant compared to the previous quarter. Transaction value improved from $34.1 billion to $36.3 billion, a six percent increase.

The median EBITDA multiple in Q1 2012 increased 27 percent over Q4 2011, rising from 9.6x to 12.2x. However, the median revenue multiple went from 2.2x to 1.6x, a 27 percent decrease.

Private Equity firms, with 109 deals, accounted for 14 percent of M&A volume in Q1 2012. The Riverside Company had five acquisitions in the first quarter, making it the most active Private Equity acquirer. Two of Riverside’s acquisitions were in the Marketing space.

Although not in the top ten transactions list, there were several notable deals in the Education and Healthcare verticals. Verisk Analytics’ announced acquisition of MediConnect Global for $349 million was the largest Healthcare transaction in Q1 2012. The largest Education deal was PLATO Learning’s announced acquisition of Archipelago Learning for $300 million.

In addition, there was a 53 percent quarterly increase in M&A activity pertaining to companies involved with document and data management, web analytics, and business intelligence.