Nice analysis here of Irish M&A. Some great exits to date and more to come.
Focus to date seems to be trade sales over PE.
FirstCapital is looking to support more M&A from Ireland, so contact me if you think this may be on your agenda!
The survey by Dublin-based corporate advisory group Pegasus Capital shows some 215 Irish technology companies have been sold since 2000 for a combined €7.9 billion. The $100 million-plus deals logged by Pegasus include the IPOs of Parthus (led by Brian Long), Skillsoft (headed by Bill McCabe) and Riverdeep (chief executive Barry O’Callaghan), the sale of Jerry Kennelly’s Stockbyte to Getty Images, and Norkom’s acquisition by BAE Systems plc. Mr O’Connell said M&A activity in the tech sector is accelerating as a large number of venture capital funds enter the second half of their life cycles, a period when they typically seek exits from their investments.
