Another Record Year for Tech Mergers in 2006: Over $600 billion
Tech
mergers worldwide are closing in on another record year as the total
value of announced tech and telecom deals (excluding debt) increased 4.9%
to $611.89 billion in 2006, according to Dealogic, reports WSJ.
Interestingly, AT&T has been at the top of the Tech M&A deals over
the last three years.
However the number of M&A transactions in 2006 declined 2.9% to 5,526, on bigger deals, driven by private equity buy-outs.
Top Tech Deals in 2006:
- $66.67 billion: BellSouth announced sale to AT&T
- $17.6 billion: Freescale Semiconductor bought by Blackstone-led group.
- $13.44 billion: Lucent sale to France's Alcatel.
- $4.51 billion: Mercury Interactive bought by HP
-
$1.65 billion: YouTube bought by Google
2005: The total value of announced deals, excluding debt, targeting tech and telecom companies jumped 43% in 2005 to $552.2 billion, according to firm Dealogic, driven by high profile sales including AT&T ($16 billion), MCI, Siebel ($5.8 billion), and $11 billion takeover of SunGard by a private equity group led by Silver Lake Partners.
2004: The value of announced deals targeting technology and telecommunications companies, excluding debt, jumped 75% in 2004 to $361 billion, according Dealogic, driven by sales of AT&T Wireless ($41 billion), PeopleSoft ($10.3 billion), and Sprint Nextel $36-billion merger.
Check WSJ Tech Merger Meter 2006 for additional insights and 2007 Outlook.
