Palo Alto, CA – February 13, 2013
Woodside Capital Partners’ Annual Event Attracts Top Silicon Valley M&A Executives, Venture Capitalists, and Entrepreneurs
More emerging growth companies will be testing the acquisition market in 2013 with corporate acquirers migrating back to the Enterprise, report M&A executives and entrepreneurs attending the sold-out MASiV, a Silicon Valley M&A Gathering, held on January 16 and 17.
Hosted by Woodside Capital Partners, a global, independent investment bank, the invitation-only conference, attracted 250 key executives from Silicon Valley’s most important large and emerging software and internet companies to discuss how to use M&A to innovate, grow and compete. Co-sponsored by Deloitte, MASiV was held at the Stonebrook Court Estate in Los Altos Hills, California.
“M&A in software and the Internet continues to see growth on a worldwide basis, and we are optimistic about 2013,” said Kelly Porter, Managing Director at Woodside Capital Partners and organizer of the MASiV Gathering.
The top ten trends emerging from MASiV are:
Expect more emerging growth companies to test the acquisition market in 2013, on the heels of a decrease in follow-on venture funding in 2012, notably among consumer-related companies. There is general migration among venture capitalists back to the Enterprise. Worldwide M&A in software and Internet was up in 2012, despite a moderate decrease in M&A overall.
Hot M&A targets mentioned by acquirers during the Gathering: apps and app stores; human capital management; big data management; big data analytics; social marketing and analytics; collaborative tools; enterprise mobility; cloud services; opportunities surrounding the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon; and companies in data center information management (DCIM).
Yahoo! is an acquirer on the rise, with $5 billion of cash on its balance sheet and a new leadership team with a big vision at the helm. Acquisitions and recruiting will complement each other in building the future of Yahoo!.
Big enterprise software companies like IBM, SAP and Oracle have mostly integrated big-dollar acquisitions in human resource management and marketing automation that were completed in the last 18 months; expect more major acquisitions by these companies as they continue to transform their businesses and push further into the cloud.
More acquisitions are expected from Microsoft after years of relatively slow M&A activity followed by a $10 billion acquisition spree in the last 18 months. Microsoft is acquiring cloud content companies and tacitly acknowledging the importance of repositioning itself in a post-desktop world.
Keep an eye on these two enterprise companies that made bold, potentially game-changing acquisitions in 2012: VMware (Nicira) and Citrix (Zenprise). Both companies have used acquisitions extensively to scale. The Nicira and Zenprise acquisitions signal significant vision and willingness by Citrix and VMware to take risk via acquisition.
Facebook¹s smart string of mobile-related acquisitions is expected to continue as the company builds-out its mobile portfolio. The company has also completed several acqui-hires.
Google remains the most important overall player in the M&A landscape, particularly in consumer, completing dozens of acquisitions each year. Larry Page’s well-known interest in artificial intelligence may show-up in the company’s strategic initiatives in the coming year.
An obvious lesson for sellers bears repeating: in diligence, if a question leads to an answer, that’s good and will help a transaction close quickly. If a question leads to several more questions, that’s not so good and will slow the process. As one panelist noted time kills all deals meaning that deal fatigue is real and is best avoided by moving crisply through a process.
Profound forward thinking: Jonathan Dillon, three-time Gathering participant; current Baidu Head of International; former Yahoo, VP, Global Corporate Development said “My 3-5 year vision for the search industry? For search technology to evolve to a point where the answer is given before the question is asked, to anyone, on any device, wherever they are.”
The next MASiV Gathering is scheduled for January 22-23, 2014.
About Woodside Capital Partners
Woodside Capital Partners is a global, independent investment bank that delivers world-class strategic and financial advice to emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences sectors. With a strong track record in M&A, strategic partnerships and private placements, Woodside Capital Partners has been providing worldwide investment banking services since 2001. Woodside Capital Partners has offices in Silicon Valley and London, and leading domain experience in software, Internet services, electronic communications and materials, and life sciences. WCP Research offers institutional technology research services to buy-side institutional investors and technology industry executives. The team of Woodside Capital Partners has completed transactions totaling more than $10 billion. Woodside Capital Partners is the Silicon Valley headquarters of M&A International, the world’s leading mergers and acquisitions alliance. For more information, please visit www.woodsidecap.com.