This morning John Cook of GeekWire reported on the Q1 2011 DowJones VentureSource study indicating that US venture-backed company M&A activity is dropping. Here is a comment that I left on John’s post regarding our perspective on such trends:
The implication of this report appears to be that M&A activity is dropping. That said, we are seeing a notable pick-up in Seattle-area M&A activity, both term sheets being signed and deals being closed. Further, we are seeing a very material increase in early discussions regarding potential M&A deals (i.e., pre-term sheet discussions). So, despite the national M&A data trend, Seattle seems to be more active now than it has been in a while. I wonder whether this is because Seattle is doing particularly well – or if perhaps Seattle is just lagging the national trend (as it has been known to do in other areas). In other words, could we still be in the Q4 2010 (or earlier) time frame relative to the national market?
We would be curious to know if our readers are seeing similar trends in the Seattle market.
Here is the M&A activity chart from the VentureSource study:
