Latest data from our good friends at Regent show a third consecutive month of rising valuation multiples for European tech M&A. The number of deals in April 2011 was down on the prior month – 223 vs 260 – with an aggregate value of $9.1b. UK BPO leader, Capita, was rather prolific, announcing three acquisitions last month: print managed services business, Right Document Solutions, the health and government activities of consultancy Tribal Group, and – rather interestingly – web apps house, Technophobia.
But arguably the most surprising deal was Tesco’s acquisition of movie streaming service, Blinkbox, a direct rival to LoveFilm, acquired by Amazon earlier this year. In February, US retail giant Walmart (owner of Asda) acquired Silicon Valley movie streaming start-up, Vudu. Perhaps our 2020 ‘prediction’ of the creation of ‘Tescozon’ may turn out to be not quite so bizarre after all!
There’ll be more on the UK software and IT services M&A scene in the next edition of TechMarketView IndustryViews M&A.