Middle-market deals in the U.S. continued their upward trend as wireless technology developer Qualcomm Inc.
acquired Atlanta-based mobile banking technology company, Firethorn Holdings LLC, for about $210 million on Wednesday. The
midmarket deal will allow Qualcomm to expand its wireless services for financial institutions and payment processors, the company said in a statement. Overall, the deal follows the increase in middle-market dealflow over the last couple of months, especially in the U.S.
Overall, midmarket M&A deals have increased the last six years, from 5.7% of all deals in 2002 to 8.6% in 2007 year-to-date, according to Dealogic. Last week, seven of the top 10 deals in the U.S. fell in the middle-market range. The international M&A scene last week, however, bucked the rising trend of midmarket acquisitions as all top 10 deals registered in the billion-dollar range. So far, on Wednesday these are the other notable midmarket deals:
- Gennadiy Bogolyubov's mining group offered $960 million in an attempt to pull ahead of rival bidder Pallinghurst Resources Fund
- McCormick & Co. acquired the Lawry's business from Unilever Group for $605 million in cash, adding wet marinades to its selection of dry spices
- London-based Guinness Peat Group plc made a £33.5 million ($70 million) offer for Newbury Racecourse plc. Guinness, which said it would offer Newbury investors £11 per share, is making the hostile bid in an attempt to stop Newbury from developing the land around its racetrack. Guinness said in a statement that it is unable to support Newbury’s development plan, which it called “ill-considered.”
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Gerald Magpily with a contribution from Phineas Lambert
See TheDeal.com: Qualcomm to buy Firethorn
See TheDeal.com: Palmary raises Consolidated offer
See TheDeal.com: Billion-dollar deals dominate international M&A scene
