September 2010 webinar continued ..
John
Melotte
Hello,
this is John Melotte speaking from London. The UK has an active
M&A market in Europe, as well as being home to the European headquarters
and research centers for many US and international IT players, it also has a
good number of its own global businesses. While we at Corum have a
more complete list for you to look at, let me highlight just a
few. BT, the giant British Telecom, with revenues of over $35
billion, invests heavily through M&A. During
the 2007 peak, it completed 13 acquisitions, one a month, buying international
businesses in comms, networking and integration services.
Pearson,
a publishing conglomerate, recently acquired a number of US-based education
media companies and is actively looking at more.
Logica,
a firm I used to work for, provides EPOs to government finance and
enterprises. It has made several acquisitions, including Corum clients in banking.
QinetiQ
regularly acquire (xxx 13:29) and defense companies in Europe and the
US. Right now this is a very hot company.
Sage
is a leading vendor of business management software. It is one of
Europe's most acquisitive companies, including some firms that Corum
represented in CRM and enterprise technology.
Autonomy,
a leader in the analysis of unstructured data, is interested in acquiring
content, information, and document management businesses.
Finally,
don't forget that London is the largest European center for venture capital and
private equity. These guys are in active buys. There are
European partnerships based here in London looking for US and global investment
opportunities and US firms with European funds. Back to you, Miro.
Miro
Parizek
Thank
you. Without a doubt, London is the hub of activity in European
M&A. In fact, over the years, Corum has sold dozens of firms to
UK buyers such as those like Logica and Sage that John just mentioned, but also
Macro4 and Kewill and others that have since been acquired like
Reuters. So, lets take a moment now and move across the channel now
to France. It is my pleasure to introduce Jérôme Fougerat,
who had nearly two decades of experiene in the software industry before joining
Corum four years ago. Jérôme, please tell us about Southern
Europe.
Jérôme
Fougerat
Hello,
this is Jérôme is Paris. France is the third largest software market
in Europe and doing well with more than 10% growth last year. While
our research has a completeness for you, let me profile a few of the most
active acquirers that Corum has dealt with recently.
At the
top is Dassault Systemes, who's revenues are more than 1.2
billion. Last year their acquisitions ran from small software to a
big IBM PRM for $600 million. This June they paid more than 135 for a
semantics search engine who's revenues were less than 80 million. They are currently
looking at acquisitions in life, health and technology that can improve their
collaborative solutions.
GFI
Informatique is a leading IT services firm with revenues of 665
million. According to their head of software, GFI is looking to
strengthen their offerings in HR and public (xxx 16:04) in Europe as well as
North America.
Cegid,
with 260 million in revenue has made at least two acquisitions per year over
the last five years, including the dual acquisition of HR firms and a web-based
platform for HR. They are currently looking to acquire software companies in the US in retail
sector.
To
finish this out, I'd like to mention two more buyers in Southern Europe. Reply
is an Italian IT services company with 340 million. They jumped to acquire 75%
of (xxx 16:43) Solutions at 12 million revenue. They are a (xxx 16:46)
based company, specializing in consulting and systems integration and
Oracle.
Finally,
in Spain, Service Point Solutions, with 220 million in document management,
just announced they are in the process of doing six international possible
transactions. At the peak of 2010, there are four deals a year, so
they are excited for acquisitions, like so many others in Europe have
increased.
In
summary, definitely consider France and Southern Europe in your
search. They represent almost 30% of the buyers in
Europe. Back to you, Miro.
Brought to you by Corums M&A advisors