North American technology M&A deals continue to dwindle, Jefferies & Co. reported Wednesday. The investment bank said that during the first quarter tech deals in the region slid 4%, to 373, compared to the last quarter of 2008. The aggregate value was a paltry $4.3 billion, the lowest level in five years.
The biggest deal announced during the quarter was Autonomy Corp. plc's $764 million agreement to acquire Interwoven Inc. (Pipeline subscribers can read more about the software deal, which was announced in January,
here).
Other nuggets of interest from the report:
- The number of public U.S. technology companies has shrunk by 18% since the beginning of 2003.
- Software, services and media M&A managed to increase 3%, but the overall total was dragged down by a 38% drop in dealmaking among companies in the semiconductor, EMS and communications sectors.
- The percentage of companies sold that were private held steady at 74%. Twenty-two percent of the deals were divestitures, and the rest were sales of public companies.
- No U.S. technology IPOs priced in the first quarter (though three did in April; Pipeline subscribers can read more about that here).
- Olaf de Senerpont Domis
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