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Posts Tagged ‘m&a’

Dell diversifies with $3.9B deal for Perot Systems

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We see this as a good sign for the investment community, the willingness to invest and seek opportunity is a very good indicator that the VC industry is warming up. As M&A serves as an option to IPO, this deal and a score of other show that there is light in the end of this downturn tunnel. This article is by way of The Day.

“Dell Inc. will spend $3.9 billion for the technology services company Perot Systems Corp. in an attempt to expand beyond the PC business and compete more aggressively with Hewlett-Packard Co., which recently bought another tech-services company founded by H. Ross Perot.Dell said Monday it will offer $30 per share in cash for Perot Systems – a 68 percent premium over its closing price Friday.

Former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot Sr., now 79, serves as chairman emeritus of Perot Systems, which he founded in 1988. According to an April regulatory filing, Perot and related trusts controlled at least 25 percent of the company’s stock, though it was not clear who is the beneficiary of those shares. The company did not respond to a request for comment on Perot’s stake.

Perot had already made a fortune from founding Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 1962 and selling the company to General Motors Corp. in a 1984 deal worth $2.5 billion. Hewlett-Packard bought EDS last year for $13.9 billion as it, too, tried to augment its services offerings and diversify beyond hardware.

In a conference call with analysts, Dell’s founder and CEO, Michael Dell, said Perot Systems will serve as an “anchor” acquisition for a global information-technology services business.

Plano, Texas-based Perot Systems would bring Dell more than 1,000 customers in several sectors, including the U.S. military and the Department of Homeland Security. About 48 percent of its revenue comes from the health care industry and 25 percent from government. Last year Perot Systems earned $117 million on sales of $2.8 billion.

Dell’s services business is more basic than those of its larger competitors; Perot Systems would add more lucrative consulting and systems-integration services to Dell’s lineup.

”This would, at least from a product standpoint, put them definitely more competitive with HP and IBM,” said Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

Read the full article here.

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Tech leads market optimism

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some good market analysis in regards to topics we covered earlier in the week by way of ITWorld.

“September 17, 2009, 07:33 PM —  IDG News Service —

Optimism about IT helped boost stock exchanges to 2009 highs this week as tech-sector mergers and acquisitions and news about improving demand for hardware buoyed investor confidence.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index hit 2133 on Wednesday, its highest level for 2009, well above the 1630 mark at the start of the year and its low of 1268.64 on March 9. Nasdaq computer stocks were up 50 percent for the year, while Nasdaq telecom stocks were up 48 percent for the year. The broader Dow Jones Composite Index was up 10 percent for 2009.

M&A activity has fueled investor excitement about the tech sector. While the recession has killed the market for leveraged buyouts and private equity deals this year, there has been a steady stream of acquisitions among tech companies, many of which have large coffers of cash.

In one of the larger tech deals announced recently, Adobe said late Tuesday it will acquire Web analytics company Omniture for US$1.8 billion in cash. Adobe said it will incorporate Omniture technology into its own Web-development and document-creation products. Adobe is paying a 45 percent premium over Omniture’s share price, which may account for the immediate reaction to the deal: Adobe shares slipped by $2.27 to close at $33.35 Wednesday.

However, M&A often stokes investor excitement because it is seen as a sign of industry confidence in certain technologies. Vendors will buy companies in order to quickly ramp up in areas of technology that they believe are taking off.

For example, Intuit — the leading personal finance software developer — on Monday announced it would pay $170 million for startup Mint.com. Though Intuit has successfully battled Microsoft Money for years, the company has not had a response to various Web-based financial tools that have sprung up lately. Mint offers free tools to help consumers gather and analyze personal financial information. While Intuit shares dipped by $0.07 to close at $27.78 Tuesday, they bounced back up to $27.89 Wednesday.”

Read the complete article here.

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Six Year Low For Venture-Backed Liquidity, Despite IPOs

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a story I picked up at DowJones VentureSource;

“Dow Jones VentureSource is reporting today that Q2 of this year was “one of the worst” ever for venture capital backed firms, in terms of liquidity, since early 2003. According to Dow Jones, there was only $2.8 billion in exits for the quarter, including both mergers and acquisitions and IPOs, down 57% from last year’s numbers. Dow Jones said there was $2.57 billion in mergers and acquisitions of 67 companies in Q2, down from $6.48B and 89 transactions in Q2 of 2008. The three venture-backed IPOs on the market raised $232M. In terms of valuation, VentureSource reported the median amount paid for a venture-backed company in Q2 was almost $22M, down from $41M from the comparable period in 2008″


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Climate for tech mergers warms up

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Distressed IP, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Sun Microsystems, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 17, 2009| 1 Comment »

Here is article from USA Today. As the crisis starts to ebb out, the downsizing has produced piles of cash at some companies.

“SAN FRANCISCO — There could be a thaw in the months-long stagnant market for tech mergers and acquisition.

Data-storage companies EMC (EMC) and NetApp are dueling to buy Data Domain for at least $1.8 billion. Last week, chipmaker Intel (INTC) said it would buy testing and development software maker Wind River Systems for $884 million.

The quarter’s big catch was when Oracle (ORCL) snapped up Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.

While hardly a buying spree, the uptick could signal a break for what has been a sluggish tech M&A market since the third quarter of last year.

So far, $17.9 billion has been spent on tech mergers in the U.S. in the current quarter — more than the previous two quarters combined, according to market researcher Thomson Reuters.

The activity reflects one byproduct of a sour economy: Big tech companies sitting on piles of cash are willing to spend some of it to aggressively pick up innovative start-ups as well as rivals with customers and market share.

The deals come at a time when venture capital funding is scarce for start-ups and there are scant initial public offerings.

“People historically make their money when they invest consistently, even during downturns,” says Keith Larson, vice president of Intel Capital, the company’s venture-capital arm. The company has said that it will spend $7 billion over two years to build advanced manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

“Almost the worst thing you can do is pull back during a downturn and miss out on buying opportunities,” Larson says. “We have a multiyear road map on the technology side.”

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, who has navigated the venerable network-equipment maker through several downturns, has said companies willing to take calculated risks often emerge stronger from recessions.

A few established companies with ample cash reserves this year have bolstered their war chests with the intention of snapping up companies.

Cisco (CSCO), which sold $4 billion in bonds in February, has about $33.5 billion in cash reserves. It acquired Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the popular Flip video camera, for $590 million.

“If you have cash, it is a good time to fortify product lines and fuel growth,” says Cynthia Ringo, managing partner for VC firm DBL Investors.

So far this quarter, there have been 239 deals in the U.S., including the Oracle-Sun blockbuster. In the first three months of this year, there were 313 deals.”

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“Bailout” in need of more bailout!

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Economy, Investments, Market research, Strategy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Putting cash into unhealthy business has long been understood as a bad deal. With the Bailout programs and the TARP initiative, some might have thought that the problem was solved – think again. Poor business remain poor business.

Here are some good quotes taken from NY Times.

“The results of the bank stress tests have been trickling out for days, from Washington and from Wall Street, and the leaks seem to confirm what many bankers feel in their bones: despite all those bailouts, some of the nation’s largest banks still need more money.

But that does not necessarily mean the banks will get that money from the government. The findings, to be released Thursday by the Obama administration, suggest that the rescue money that Congress has already approved will be enough to fill the gaps. If so, the big bailouts for the banks may be over.But hopes that the tests will be a turning point in this financial crisis electrified Wall Street on Wednesday and some overseas markets the next day. Financial shares soared, lifting the broader American stock market to its highest level in four months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 101.63, or 1.2 percent, to close at 8,512.28 Wednesday, while Japan’s Nikkei index rose more than 4 percent by midday Thursday.”

Good news indeed, but…

“After news this week that Bank of America and Citigroup would be required to bolster their finances again, word came Wednesday that regulators had determined that Wells Fargo and GMAC, the deeply troubled financial arm of General Motors, would need to do so as well. But regulators decided that American Express, Capital One, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and MetLife would not need to take action. The official word is due at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The results so far seem to suggest that the 19 institutions that underwent these exams will need less than $100 billion in additional equity to cope with a deep recession, far less than some investors had feared. The question now is, where will banks get that capital?”

Read the full article here.

Other helpful sources on this issue can be found here: Huffington Post, Barrons Blogs, Wall Street Journal, Seeking Alpha, 24/7 WallStreet

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