According to a recent report cited on Tech City News, the UK has ranked second in the number of global tech exits in the first half of 2016. The report also sheds light on other positions, with the US (unsurprisingly) leading the list, and India, Canada and Germany coming in at third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
The report also spells some not-so-good news for China’s standing. Coming in at seventh in 2015, it has failed to make the list at all this year. Going into analysis, it has also been stated that every country in the top-five of the list has exits taken up by the internet sector.
THE NUMERICAL BREAKDOWN
While 55% of tech exits in the UK were related to the Internet sector, 11% were located in the mobile and telecommunications industry.
Of the total, around 10% of UK tech exits happened in the software space, 18% in computer and hardware services, 4% were in electronics and just 1% in product and services.
The report goes on to say:
It’s not surprising that internet exits attracted the most attention. Mobile exits have slowed down, reaching a five quarter low to account for 15% of global tech exits in Q2’16.
THE EUROPEAN SITUATION
Things are also looking up as far as European M&A activity goes, with 208 acquisitions and three initial public offerings (IPO) taking place in the second quarter of this year alone. With 135 mergers and acquisitions and one IPO, UK swooped to the top of the list, as far as M&A in Europe were concerned. So yes, a fair bit of consolidation appears to be going on in the country.
Particular triumphs for the UK included Apical’s $350m deal with ARM, Microsoft’s $250m acquisition of Swiftkey and Twitter’s deal to buy Magic Pony for $150m.
Close upon the UK’s heels are Germany, with 63 M&A deals and one IPO, and France, with 38 mergers and acquisitions.
Europe is clearly a hive of activity. The time is ripe for global enterprise!
