Marlin Blog

Below is a link to our November 2011 Market Update. As you will see, it provides our sense of M&A values, activity and trends for the dozen plus technology, information and healthcare sectors that we follow.

Click here for our Market Update

There were several notable transactions in October, including:

• Oracle agreed to acquire two companies:
  -      Customer experience management provider Rightnow Technologies for $1.5B; and
  -      Data management provider Endeca (price not disclosed);
• Lexmark agreed to acquire BPM provider Pallas Athena for $50.2M;
• Parseq agreed to a takeover deal valued at $46.1M, led by CEO, Nova Partners and HarbourVest Partners;
• OpenLink agreed to acquire commodity management software provider SolArc;
• SunGard acquired financing process management provider Northern Arch Solutions;
• Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) acquired majority control of Triple Point Technologies, a provider of software to manage commodities and enterprise risk.
  (We are pleased to note that Marlin & Associates acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to WCAS for one of the industry’s largest and most significant transactions. It is the fourth significant transaction in the energy and commodities technology sector on which we have recently advised.)

In several sectors that we cover, including Healthcare Services and Technology, the number of M&A transactions was down considerably in October reflecting the broader M&A market. We do not believe this reflects a trend. One trend that we have observed is the growing investments by U.S. private equity firms in overseas markets. On the heels of Carlyle’s acquisition of N.I.C, a Japanese medical staffing company in September, this month Advent International made an investment in American Heart of Poland (AHP). AHP is an operator of cardiovascular treatment units.

Below is a link to our October 2011 Market Update. As you will see, it provides our sense of M&A values, activity and trends for the dozen plus technology, information and healthcare sectors that we follow.

Click here for our Market Update

There were several notable transactions in September, including:

• IBM agreed to acquire risk analytics software provider Algorithmics for $387M;
• Reed Elsevier agreed to acquire Accuity, which provides global payment routing data for £343M;
• GTCR agreed to acquire transaction processing software provider Fundtech for $353M, with the latter abandoning its plans to merge with S1 (originally announced in June);
• Vista Equity Partners agreed to acquire Sage Software Healthcare, a provider of electronic health records services for $320M;
• The Carlyle Group agreed to acquire two companies:

-   N.I.C. Corp (Tokyo-based), a medical administration and staffing services provider for $149M, and;
-   ITRS Group (London-based), a company that provides trade monitoring technology and services;

• Hellman & Friedman agreed to acquire trade management software provider, OpenLink Financial from Carlyle Group;
• Guidewire Software, which provides enterprise software to the property and casualty industry, filed for an IPO, up to $100M;
• NICE Systems agreed to acquire Fizzback, a SaaS-based voice-of-the-customer provider for $80M;
• Broadridge Financial Solutions acquired financial technology solutions provider Paladyne Systems, for $76.5M;
• ZocDoc, an online service to book doctor appointments, raised $75M from Goldman Sachs and DST Global, and;
• Salesforce.com acquired Assistly, which provides multi-channel customer support software for $50M.

As you will note, a number of these deals involve large information technology firms reaching across borders to acquire capabilities, as well as private equity firms increasingly become more acquisitive, especially within the financial technology sector.

We hope you will find this month’s newsletter useful.  As you will see, in spite of the recent market correction, for most of the sectors that we track, valuations remain well above their lows of 2008/2009 and above last year.

Dear Clients & Friends,

Below is a link to our September 2011 Market Update. As you will see, it provides our sense of M&A values, activity and trends for the dozen plus technology, information and healthcare sectors that we follow.

Click here for our Market Update

There were several sizable transactions in August, including:

• Hewlett Packard agreed to acquire UK information management software provider Autonomy for £6.2Bn;
• Datatel, Inc, a company that provides technology products to universities and SunGard Higher Education signed definitive agreements to combine their businesses and operate as one separate company in a $1.8Bn transaction sponsored by Hellman and Friedman;
• General Dynamics agreed to acquire Vangent,a leading provider of healthcare information-technology and business systems to federal agencies, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $960 million.
• IBM acquired the UK-based analytics provider i2 Limited for a rumored $500M;
• GTCR, the Chicago-based private equity firm, acquired a majority stake in Las Vegas based BankServ for $150M;
• Great Hill Partners of Boston acquired Israel-based Plimus for $115;
• Computershare (based in Australia) agreed to acquire two companies:
  • Specialized Loan Servicing (based in Colorado) for $114M plus potential  additional consideration based on performance over three years, and;
  • Australia-based Serviceworks Group for AUD$54M, plus potential  additional consideration based on performance over three years.

As you will note, a number of these deals involve large information technology firms reaching across borders to acquire capabilities.

We’ve been part of this trend too. In August,

- We announced that we advised NYSE Euronext Group on its acquisition of Tokyo-based, Metabit, which provides high-performance market access products throughout Japan and Asia, and later in August,

- We advised London-based Atrium Network, a leading provider of high availability, cost effective, low latency network solutions in Europe and North America, on its sale to Canada’s TMX Group.

We hope you will find this month’s newsletter useful.  As you will see, in spite of the recent market correction, for most of the sectors that we track, valuations  remain well above their lows of 2008/2009 and above last year.

Below is a link to our latest Market Update.   As you will see, the active pace of m&a activity as well as relatively strong values continued this month for companies in most of the dozen plus technology, information and healthcare sectors that we follow. (Of course this was before last week’s market correction.)

There were several interesting transactions completed in July, including:

• Blackstone Group acquired a controlling stake in Emdeon valued at $2.2Bn;
• CVC Capital acquired ConvergEx Group for a rumored $1.9Bn;
• Providence Equity Partners acquired Blackboard for $1.6Bn;
• Western Union acquired Travelex Global Business Payments (TGBP) for £606M;
• DST Systems acquired ALPS Fund Services for $250M;  and
• eBay acquired Zong for $240M.

And there was plenty of other activity including S1 Corporation and Fundtech re-affirming their intention to merge (valued at $700M) while at the same time, S1 rejecting an unsolicited bid by ACI Worldwide valued at $510M.

Click here for our Market Update