UK companies remained the dominant buyers in European tech M&A transactions last year despite a downturn in activity, according to latest data from corporate finance firm Regent Partners. North American companies were more cautious in 2012 and slipped to third place behind Scandinavian buyers. Rather surprisingly, the Southern European buyers were more active in 2012 with Iberian buyers doing 80% more deals and Eastern Mediterranean buyers doing 26% more deals than in 2011. Regent also noted that the number of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) exits dropped back slightly in 2012 after increasing for three consecutive years.
The most significant growth in deal activity during 2012 was in the internet services space with an increase of 23%. In particular, internet retail deals have been the main feature with consolidation and geographic expansion the main themes.
Eligible TechMarketView subscription service clients will be able to read our year-end round-up of corporate activity and venture capital investment in the UK software and IT services scene in the next editions of IndustryViews Corporate Activity and IndustryViews Venture Capital.