2006: A Year in Numbers - Technology, Business, & Financial Markets
As
2006 comes to a close and everyone is taking time to enjoy the wonderful
holiday season, and before embarking on another adventurous year 2007, here is
a look at the 2006 top technology, business and global markets by the
Numbers profiled in Metrics 2.0.
TIME Person of the Year 2006: YOU ...almost like YouTube
The
answer is, YOU! "And for seizing the reins of the global media,
for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for
nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the
Year for 2006 is YOU...made possible by YouTube, MySpace, and a host
of Web 2.0 creations.
Google Zeitgeist 2006: Top 10 Searches; Top 10 Who.. What.. How.. Define...
Google is home to over 3 billion searches each month and accounts for
nearly 50% of the online searches in U.S. As we prepare to say
farewell to 2006 and welcome 2007, Google has compiled several top 10
search lists in several categories. Here are some interesting ones...
2006: The Year Spam Raised Its Game; 2007 Predictions
A
new report highlights the escalation of spam activity throughout 2006,
with annual average spam levels reaching 86.2%, and spam overtaking
viruses as the dominant menace over the last twelve months, a trend
which is predicted to continue through 2007, according to 2006 Annual
MessageLabs Intelligence Report
Global M&A at All Time High in 2006 : $3.7 trillion
Mergers
and acquisitions worldwide have jumped 30% in 2006 to hit a all time
record $3.7 trillion this year so far, surpassing the 2000 high of
$3.4 trillion, according to data released by Thomson Financial today.
Global M&A 2006 by the Numbers:
Record Global IPO Activity in 2006: $227B in 1559 Deals
Fueled
by emerging markets, global IPO activity soared to a record high of
$227 billion in 1,559 new deals in the first 11 months of 2006,
according to Ernst & Young (data provided by Ernst & Young,
Dealogic and Thomson Financial). Global IPOs raised $167 billion in
the whole of 2005.
Global VC Investments to Hit 5 Year High in 2006 - E&Y and VentureOne
Global
venture capital investment in 2006 is poised to hit a five-year high
and register the highest annual investments of $32 billion since 2001
when VC investments reached $51.22 billion, according
to a global year end analysis by Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst &
Young.
FT: Non-Public 150 Companies Worth $7 trillion, Dominated by Oil and Private Equity
The
first comprehensive study of the world’s largest unlisted companies,
"The FT’s Non-Public 150" by the Financial Times and
McKinsey, found that Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state company
that sits on by far the world’s largest conventional oil reserves,
is worth an estimated $781 billion, some 80% larger than the $454
billion market capitalization of its publicly listed rival ExxonMobil.
Playing the Long Game in $49 trillion Global Asset Management - BCG Report
The
value of global professionally managed assets — those for which a
management fee is paid — grew by around 15% to $49.1 trillion in
2005, with capital inflows driven largely by growth in Europe and Businesses with No Employees - Microbusinesses to Hit $1 trillion in Sales This Year
Non-employer
firms or Microbusinesses are often home-based ventures with no paid
employees and generally at least $1,000 in annual revenue. In an
analysis for USA TODAY, the Small Business Administration
estimates the number of these firms reached the 20 million mark for
the first time this year.
Holiday Season Online Sales Up a Solid 26%; Non-Travel E-Commerce Hits $100B Mark for the Year
During the first 56 days of the holiday
season through December 26, total U.S. online retail
(non-travel) spending reached $23.11 billion, an increase of 26% vs.
the corresponding days in 2005, according to comScore Networks data
released late Thursday. U.S. online holiday season sales also
rose about 25% in both 2005 and 2004, according to comScore.
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.
Texas Pacific Group Tops Global Buy-outs with Deals Worth $101 billion
2006
has been an extraordinary year for private equity, with the value of
announced deals hitting a record $700 billion, more than double the
record set in 2005 and 20 times bigger than in 1996, according to
Thomson Financial data. Texas Pacific Group broke another record this
year, to become the first buy-out firm ever to do more than $100
billion worth of deals.
Hong Kong Passes New York for No.2 in Attracting IPOs
Hong
Kong surged past New York this year and became the world's second most
popular destination for initial public offerings with over $35 billion
raised in IPOs thru November . London is the No.1 in terms of dollar
amount raised in IPOs this year, reports AP.
Real Estate Globalization: Direct Investments to Hit $600 billion in 2006
Global
direct real estate investment reached a record $290 billion in the
first half of 2006, up 30% from 2005, according
to Jones Lang LaSalle’s global real estate capital report, ‘Record
Volumes, Record Globalisation’. It believes global commercial direct
real estate investment will hit a record $600 billion in 2006.
Top 10 Words of 2006: truthiness No.1; google No.2
It's
official now...the word of the year for 2006 is "truthiness
- truth that comes from the gut, not books", according
to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster (based on
votes from visitors to their Web site) . "Truthiness" was
credited to Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert
Report," October 2005.
>> Check Market Metrics from Metrics 2.0 for a summary of trends by the Numbers
