AGC Partners' Capital Markets report

AGC just published its May Capital markets report which has some terrific data on the state of M&A in the technology segment of the market. Here's the highlights, and I would suggest going to the report to cull data for your specific interests:

• Q2 2012 saw 85 M&A transactions. Flat for the past 3 quarters and a drop from a busy Q3 '11, which saw 120 deals
• Software & IT Services was the busiest area (33% of deals), followed by Digital Media & Internet  (17%), and communications (16%)
• Google (26), Facebook (16), EMC (16) and Ebay (14) were the most active buyers in the last 18 months
• Over the last 4 years, the most active buyers were Google (60), IBM (48), EMC (44) and Oracle (39)
• The median premium to the 30 day valuation, prior to announcement, was 29%
• Enterprise value/Last 12 month revenue was 3.6x (caution, this covers all segments and growth trajectories, so is best used in aggregate for gee whiz purposes)
• 39 Technology related IPO's were priced in the trailing 12 months, though new filings seem to indicate a slowdown in new offerings