Tech M&A in Q2: A clear record, but cloudy outlook

Posted by on June 30, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly At the beginning of June, we noted that spending on tech deals in the second quarter was tracking to hit its highest quarterly level since the Credit Crisis erupted two years ago. And with the second quarter set to end later today, the period will indeed set a record, thanks largely to [...]

A very happy birthday to LogMeIn

Posted by on June 29, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly Exactly a year ago, LogMeIn hit the public market with an offering that has done what IPOs are generally expected to do. The debut priced at the top of its range ($14-16), raised a goodly amount of money ($107m, from 6.7 million shares at $16 each) and has held up solidly in [...]

Rakuten buys beyond Asia

Posted by on June 28, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin Japanese companies have never been known as serial acquirers, but Rakuten is certainly doing its best to stay busy. In each of the past two months, the Japanese conglomerate, which has a significant online retail operation, has spent a quarter-billion dollars in an effort to build up its Web retailing business. The deals represent [...]

Cablevision breaks the mold with Bresnan acquisition

Posted by on June 25, 2010

Contact: Ben Kolada Marking a significant departure from its recent practice, Cablevision Systems said last week that it would hand over almost $1.4bn in cash and stock for Bresnan Communications. The deal by the Dolan gang is their first major telecom acquisition since they picked up a portion of Tele-Communications in 1998. And they certainly paid [...]

Twitter’s tiny transactions

Posted by on June 24, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin Even though it’s one of the biggest properties on the Web, Twitter has only done small deals. Over the last two years, it has been steadily strengthening its platform with small acquisitions. The pace has picked up notably in the past half-year, with Twitter announcing four purchases in that time. Thanks to its shopping [...]

The Motricity monstrosity

Posted by on June 23, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly Pulled prospectuses, cut terms and broken issues – it’s a singularly poor time for any company to go public. We’ve already chronicled the dispiriting ‘new normal’ for IPOs, with smaller offerings and lower valuations. But just when it seemed that the IPO market couldn’t sink any further, along came Motricity’s offering. The [...]

Is SafeNet looking to secure an IPO?

Posted by on June 22, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly A little more than three years after it went private, SafeNet is looking to return to the public market. Several sources have indicated that the encryption vendor has lined up its underwriters and plans to file an S-1 in about two weeks. If indeed the offering goes ahead, it will face a [...]

LANDesk nearly done

Posted by on June 21, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly After a nearly half-year process, Emerson Electric is close to having LANDesk off its books. Emerson, which picked up the systems management vendor when it acquired Avocent for $1.2bn last fall, classifies LANDesk as a ‘discontinued operation’ and hired Greenhill & Co to advise it on the divestiture. We understand that final [...]

Vector ‘registers’ a solid exit

Posted by on June 18, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly A half-decade after taking Register.com private, Vector Capital announced the sale of the website registration and design provider to Web.com Group for $135m. That’s a fair bit lower than the $200m the buyout shop paid for the equity of Register.com in the LBO, but a fair bit above the company’s net cost [...]

A potential quarter-billion dollar M&A hangover for JDA

Posted by on June 17, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly The cost of JDA Software’s purchase of i2 Technologies just got a lot steeper. A jury has found that i2 software failed to do what it was supposed to do for department store chain Dillard’s. The case goes back a decade, long before JDA picked up the supply chain vendor. (The $568m [...]

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