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The regular lists of investments, combinations and other business marriages that we receive from Martin Wolf Securities keeps getting longer and longer. Many of the companies, of course, are product vendors opportunistically buying new technologies, but we haven't seen so much channel consolidation since the post-bubble days from 2001 to 2002.
Aside from what we reported last week and the big CDW-Berbee Information Networks deal, here's a select list of the channel companies involved in M&A since late August: NaviSys, an insurance industry solution provider in Edison, N.J., that was snapped up by Accenture; PSC Info, a document management VAR in Oaks, Pa., that was bought by investment firm Roark Capital Group; Dynavar Networking of Bellevue, Wash., which combined with Solunet; ASP USinternetworking, which was bought by AT&T; another ASP, Mi8, which was bought by Apptix; SolutionsIQ, also of Bellevue, which was bought by private investors; and AimNet Solutions of Norwalk, Conn., which is now part of Cognizant Technology Solutions.
AND just in case you think CDW is the only DMR looking to extend its profile, PC Mall and Office Depot were also involved in transactions in the past month.
AND that doesn't even account for the activity outside of the United States.
Innovation Advisors, an investment banking firm in the Boston area, predicts that 2006 will be the most active year for mergers in the tech industry since 2006, even though the number of U.S. transactions will decline.
According to the firm, the total number of transactions for the first three quarter of 2006 was $186.3 billion, which outstrips total deals worth about $164.4 billion for all of 2005. It projects the grand total for 2006 at $248.4 billion.
Doug Brockway, managing director at Innovation Advisors, says the main motivators of this activity are geographic expansion and the collision of vertically focused tech products, especially software applications. Leveraged buyout firms are looking more closely at tech companies than ever before. He also predicts that 2007 will bring even more of a wild road.
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