Samantha Tomaszczyk is a senior research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. She is focused on identifying emerging areas of M&A activity, many of which fall within her areas of sector expertise – including fintech and the internet of things. Samantha’s recent areas of concentration include dealmaking in the payments sector, the changing nature of private equity and the impact of regulation on large-cap buyers. Prior to joining the research team in 2022, Samantha was an editor at S&P Global Market Intelligence covering technology, media and telecommunications. Before this, she spent several years covering the sector for various publications, including M&A newswire Mergermarket. She has also written about telecommunications regulation and trade lawsuits for newswire MLex. Samantha holds a law degree from the University of Law.
Western Europe is missing out on the global tech M&A recovery. This year is on track to be the third in a row in which buyers of the region's tech spend roughly half of what they used to. The opposite is happening in North America, where deal spending overtook last year's total with three months to spare.
Visa and Mastercard turn to M&A to further diversify their revenue, with both card companies announcing large investments in security software over the past few weeks. The companies are both growing their value-added services businesses, where cybersecurity and fraud prevention sit.
Sometimes being first matters more than being biggest. Recent deals show that a head start in the M&A process can make all the difference. That could well be the deciding factor as KKR and Bain Capital battle for Fuji Soft. Looking at the top PE purchases of tech vendors this year, very few of them have been quick wins or straightforward auctions.
Private equity firms are shopping from their own closet, pushing up take-private M&A values in the process. Buyout shops have spent $54 billion so far this year on public companies compared with $57 billion in the whole of 2023.
Acquirers are making the most of the UK stock market discount to purchase some of its fastest-growing tech vendors. The first half of 2024 was the largest on record for UK-listed deal value as both strategic buyers and private equity firms upped their spending, which totaled $18.4 billion.
Building multiple generations of AI acceleration silicon is an expensive business, and UK-based Graphcore was running out of financing options. SoftBank intends to operate the target as a wholly owned subsidiary, but might also use its technology internally.
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