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Mergers and Acquistions News

Categories: Software

October 1st 2008, 13:25PM

A merger between two banks turned out to be the biggest news in the UK's technology deal sector during September.

Lloyd's TSB's estimated £12 billion acquisition of HBOS will lead to a "significant" integration of IT services and infrastructure, according to Computing.co.uk, with the establishment of an individual trading platform for the combined group among its top priorities.

Other technology-related deals between UK companies were generally of a much smaller nature, with Ultra Electronics' £5 million acquisition of AudioSoft typifying the size of the transactions.

It was the fourth takeover of 2008 for Ultra, which had already purchased Magneto Inductive Systems, Harris Acoustic Products and ProLogic earlier in the year.

The size of the deal was exactly the same as e2v Holdings' acquisition of Swiss semiconductor firm MiCS MicroChemical Systems in 2007, but the former spent several times that amount in September to add QP Semiconductor to its business portfolio.

An agreement worth up to $80 million (£44.9 million) was signed between the companies, consisting of an initial $65 million cash payment and a potential extra $15 million for stockholders based on performance.

Continuing the theme of firms expanding by acquiring more than one company in just a few months was Activision Publishing, the interactive entertainment developer, which is based in California. It purchased FreeStyleGames of Leamington Spa for an undisclosed amount as it moved forward with plans to further expand into the European market.

"An important part of our European growth strategy is to work with local developers and provide music content that resonates with the market," commented Mike Griffith, Activision's chief executive and president.

The takeover came almost a year to the day after Activision became the owner of Bizarre Creations, another computer game developer, which is based in Liverpool.

Adobe Systems was another major US company looking to increase its presence in the European market with the acquisition of dynamic imaging software provider YaWah ApS.

Vice-president and general manager Doug Mack remarked: "YaWah's market knowledge and technology, integrated with Scene7, will ensure that European companies have immediate access to hosted media solutions that are transforming the online experience for some of the web's most visited sites."

September did not simply feature US firms buying European companies, however, with Invensys reversing the trend with its acquisition of US rail operator Quantum Engineering. The British technology firm paid $38 million (£21.2 million) in cash for the Florida business, which will be integrated into the Invensys Rail Group division.

In another US to UK deal, Sharecast reported that Spectris became the owner of Siemens' AG's Machine Vision Business. The deal involved the British firm paying an initial $11.5 million (£6.32 million) in cash for the US assets, which chief executive John O'Higgins hoped would be able to improve the service offered by subsidiary Microsan.

Siemens was also in the news for its proposed deal with Gores Group, which would see Siemens Enterprise Communications become part of the German company. The agreement was approved by the European commission.ADNFCR-1833-ID-18805867-ADNFCR

 

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