Buying and selling at Disney 2.0

Posted by on July 30, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin If we look at the recent M&A moves by Disney, it’s clear what the media giant sees as its future. Just today, Disney divested its Miramax division, only days after its $563m purchase of social gaming startup Playdom. Taken together, these deals show that 86-year-old Disney is leaving the box office behind and [...]

Symantec to talk shop — and shopping

Posted by on July 28, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly Although most of the attention in Symantec’s quarterly report Wednesday night will be focused on the top and bottom line, we expect the company’s recent shopping spree to also come up. The storage and security giant announced three acquisitions in its just-completed quarter – more deals than it did in all of [...]

SonicWALL’s big-ticket buyout

Posted by on July 27, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly The recently closed leveraged buyout (LBO) of SonicWALL represents the largest straight take-private of a technology company so far this year. Thoma Bravo announced the deal, which has an equity value of $717m, back in early June and shareholders gave the LBO their blessing on Friday. The bid of $11.50 for each [...]

Tech M&A strikes back

Posted by on July 26, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin As we pointed out in a recent webinar, 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for tech M&A. With year-to-date acquisition activity already surpassing last year’s total value and number of deals, it appears as though most companies were just sitting out the storm until it was time to start buying [...]

What’s up with the Bay Area?

Posted by on July 23, 2010

Contact: Ben Kolada Bay Area buyers have roared back to life in 2010. Compared to the same period a year ago, Bay Area buyers’ deal volume has increased 46%, while at the national level M&A has risen only 21%. Year-to-date, Bay Area-based acquirers announced 230 transactions, 19% of all technology deals undertaken by US-based companies. [...]

Preview: Will FCoE-driven networking convergence lead to M&A?

Posted by on July 21, 2010

Contact: Henry Baltazar In an upcoming 451 TDM report, we argue that momentum behind SAN and IP networking convergence could fuel M&A in the fiber channel over Ethernet (FCoE) space. It all started in August 2002, when Cisco Systems paid $750m for Andiamo Systems. Reinforcing that acquisition, the vendor acted again four years later, buying Nuova [...]

Apple maps collision course with Google

Posted by on July 20, 2010

Contact: Jarrett Streebin Marking its second purchase of a mapping company in just nine months, Apple reportedly reached for startup Poly9 Group last week. Not much is known about Quebec City-based Poly9, which makes interactive 3-D software. (And not much can be gleaned from the company’s website, which no longer loads.) Apple’s latest acquisition comes on [...]

Nokia hiring by acquiring

Posted by on July 19, 2010

In an unusual bit of dealmaking, Nokia bought geo-tagging vendor MetaCarta in April and then turned around and sold it three months later. The recent divestiture might appear to be a botched acquisition. However, as we look closer at the deal, it turns out that Nokia actually got what it wanted out of the purchase. [...]

A post-IPO shopping list for QlikTech

Posted by on July 16, 2010

Contact: Brenon Daly, Krishna Roy Bucking the trend of trimmed prices and broken issues for tech IPOs, QlikTech debuted on the market Friday with a strong offering. The analytics vendor sold 11.2 million shares at $10 each, above the $8.50-9.50 range the company had set. In their Nasdaq debut, shares of QlikTech continued higher, changing [...]

NTT makes $3.2bn IT services play

Posted by on July 15, 2010

Contact: John Abbott Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has made a surprise offer for one of its existing partners, Dimension Data Holdings, an LSE- and Johannesburg Securities Exchange-listed IT services firm with roots in South Africa. This is an unusually large acquisition for a Japanese company, worth 120 pence per share, approximately [...]

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