The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

After a tumultuous year economically, 2009 in turn shaped up to be an interesting year for acquisitions. As stated in the Q4 post, it was really a tale of two halves. Here’s the breakdown by quarter:

Q1: 21 total acquisitions for $1.5 billion

Q2: 24 total acquisitions for $5.8 billion

Q3: 47 total acquisitions for $18.2 billion

Q4: 46 total acquisitions for $10.4 billion

For a more in-depth look at each individual quarter, visit our 2009 quarterly acquisition posts linked to above.

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Here is a link to our most recent list, Complete List of Q4 2009 Web, Internet and Tech Acquisitions.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q1 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q2 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q3 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q4 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Telecommunications Companies Acquired in Q4 2009

Acquisition activity during 2009 was very much a tale of two halves. The first half of 2009 (Q1 & Q2) was weak–45 acquisitions for a total of $7.3 billion (33 undisclosed). The second half (Q3 & Q4) was much brighter–93 acquisitions for a total of $28.6 billion (48 undisclosed).

If you compare the second half of 2008 to the second half of 2009, the contrast is even greater. The combined activity for Q3 and Q4 2008 resulted in a mere 33 acquisitions for a measly $48 billion, which is about a third of the activity that we saw these past two quarters.

For many this surge in activity is a clear-cut sign that our recent economic condition is on the rebound. It will be interesting to see if this high level of activity will sustain through 2010. Be sure to check back with us at the end of Q1 2010 to find out.

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Here is a link to our most recent list, Complete List of Q3 2009 Web, Internet and Tech Acquisitions.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q4 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2009

Telecommunications Companies Acquired in Q4 2009

Acquisition activity during the first half of the year (Q1 2009, Q2 2009) was excruciatingly slow.  Economic turmoil forced many companies to keep a close watch on their wallets. As a result Q1 and Q2 combined saw a mere 45 total acquisitions for a measly $7.3 billion.

Q3 2009, however, has shown a complete turnaround. With a total of 47 acquisitions amounting to approximately $18.2 billion (only 20 were disclosed), activity for this past quarter has already surpassed that of the entire first half of the year. In fact, Q3 2009 shows more than double the number of acquisitions than any of the previous four quarters, while the combined total amount still doesn’t exceed that of Q3 2009 alone. Here’s the breakdown:

• Quarter 3 2008: 18 acquisitions ($5.0 billion)
• Quarter 4 2008: 15 acquisitions ($3.0 billion)
• Quarter 1 2009: 21 acquisitions ($1.5 billion)
• Quarter 2 2009: 24 acquisitions ($5.8 billion)
• Quarter 3 2009: 47 acquisitions ($18.2 billion)

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Here is a link to our most recent list, Complete List of Q2 2009 Web / Internet / Tech Acquisitions.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q3 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2009

Total amount disclosed: $18.2 billion (20 disclosed of 47 total deals)

Last quarter we reported that there wasn’t much for acquisition news in the tech space. Activity remained stagnant like the two previous quarters (Q4 2008, Q3 2008). So have things finally started to turn around this quarter? Drum roll please…

Not even a little bit.

Activity was virtually identical. Last quarter there were 21 total acquisitions. This quarter there were 24. Last quarter six acquisitions were disclosed. This quarter five were disclosed. The only difference between this quarter and last is the total dollar amount of the disclosed acquisitions. Q1’s disclosed acquisitions totaled $1.5 billion, while Q2’s reach $5.8 billion—quite a jump.

Where did this jump come from? It came almost exclusively from Oracle’s purchase of Sun Microsystems for $5.6 billion. Take that out of the equation and you have two nearly identical quarters.

What’s really striking, however, is the difference between this year and last year. When you compare M&A activity for Q2 2008 to activity for Q2 2009, the comparison is quite staggering.
 
               Q2 2008                                                 Q2 2009
               41 total acquisitions                              24 total acquisitions

               18 disclosed–$45 billion                       5 disclosed–$5.8 billion

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Here is a link to our most recent list, Complete List of Q1 2009 Web / Internet / Tech Acquisitions.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q2 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2009

Total disclosed $5.8 Billion (5 total disclosed of 24 total deals)

The big acquisition news coming out of Q1 2009 is really no news—activity remains slow. M&A activity began cooling down during Q3 2008 and has remained fairly stagnant since then. Last year at this time we saw 22 disclosed acquisitions with a total dollar value of $4.75 billion. Q1 2009, however, saw only six disclosed acquisitions totaling $1.5 billion.

Though only six of this quarter’s acquisitions were disclosed, there were actually 21 total companies bought and sold, 15 of which were undisclosed. When acquisitions are undisclosed, this typically means they are much smaller and immaterial in terms of dollar value.

There were six more acquisitions this quarter compared to Q4 2008; however, two of this quarter’s six disclosed acquisitions (Cisco’s acquisition of PureDigital and Autonomy’s acquisition of Interwoven) made up $1.37 billion of the $1.5 billion total. So although the actual number of acquisitions rose, the actual dollar values are likely much lower than past quarters.

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q1 2009

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Software Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2009

Total disclosed $1.5 Billion (6 total disclosed of 21 total deals)

With a drastic drop in the number of acquisitions between the first half and second half of the year, 2008 has shaped up to be an interesting year in technology acquisitions. Nearly 70 percent of acquisitions took place in the first half of 2008. This decline is no doubt tied to the financial crises of the past several months and our country’s growing economic uncertainty. Here is the quarterly breakdown in the number of acquisitions.

Q1: 32 total acquisitions
Q2: 41 total acquisitions
Q3: 18 total acquisitions
Q4: 15 total acquisitions

There were several big ticket acquisitions this year. The largest was Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel for a whopping $28.1 billion. This acquisition allowed Verizon to surpass AT&T as the nation’s largest wireless provider. Here are some of the other big acquisitions this year.

1. HP acquires EDS: $13.9 billion
2. NBC Universal acquires The Weather Channel: $3.5 billion
3. Brocade acquires Foundry Networks: $3 billion
4. CBS acquires CNET: $1.8 billion

Also, the trend of Web/Internet acquisitions dominating the tech space began in 2007 and continued throughout 2008. Nearly 50 percent of all acquisitions were in this space. 

We’d like to say thanks to all of the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any acquisitions that we’ve missed, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update it.

Update: Here is a link to Q1 2009 Web/Internet/Tech Acquisitions, our most recent list.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Software Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Mapping/Geo Companies Acquired in Q1 of 2008

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Software Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Telecom Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q3 2008

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Software Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Voice Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q4 2008

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2008

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2008

Voice Companies Acquired in Q4 of 2008

Our big news in acquisitions this past quarter comes straight from our own office. PartnerUp was acquired by Deluxe Corporation back in July, so we’re pretty excited to be able to add our own name to the Q3 list.

As for the rest of the M&A activity this past quarter, things have been cooling down. While Q2 saw a substantial increase in the number of total tech acquisitions with 41, Q3 ended with a mere 24 acquisitions—quite a nose dive from last quarter. The drastic reduction in activity is likely a direct effect of the current economic climate and weakening of the finance industry.

Here are a few of the highlights from Q3:

• Web/Internet remained the largest category with 16 of the 24 acquisitions falling in this category.

• The largest acquisition was NBC Universal’s purchase of the Weather Channel for $3.5 billion.

• Twelve of the 24 acquisitions disclosed their sale price, the total of which came to $4.957 billion.

• The average disclosed price was $413 million. Excluding the Weather Channel acquisition, the average disclosed price was $132.5 million.

We’d also like to say thanks to all the great blogs out there (TechCrunch, GigaOM, Mashable, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb and more) whose frequent tracking of acquisitions makes this list possible.

If you know of any mergers or acquisitions that we’ve missed from Q3, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll update accordingly.

Update: Here is a link to Q1 2009 Web/Internet/Tech Acquisitions, our most recent list.

Web/Internet Companies Acquired in Q3 2008

Social Networking Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Internet Advertising Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Software Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Voice Companies Acquired in Q3 of 2008

Hardware Companies Acquired in Q2 of 2008

A brief disclaimer: We’ve tried hard to ensure that all of the information above is accurate, but it is very likely that we’ve made a few typos and mistakes. If you catch an error, please post a comment and we’ll do our best to research and correct it. We’re not responsible for the accuracy of the above information and it should not be relied upon.

I’m thrilled to announce today that PartnerUp has been acquired by Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX), a Twin Cities-based Fortune 1000 company that offers small businesses products and services to help owners manage, grow and promote their businesses.

So what does all of this mean for you? Well, on the one hand it means nothing. I’ll still be running the business, the entire PartnerUp team is staying on and will still be working to grow the business and help our customers, and together we’re still going to provide you with all of the useful tools and content that we have been all along.

On the other hand, Deluxe is presenting us with the opportunity to give you even more. Deluxe has been around for more than 90 years, generates $1.6 Billion in annual revenue, employs more than 7,000 people, and has more than 6 million small business customers.

With these additional resources from Deluxe, we’re going to do things bigger and better, and we’re going to keep doing them just for you without changing our focus one bit. In addition, by welcoming Deluxe’s more than 6 million small-business customers to the PartnerUp community, we hope to greatly boost the number of people, opportunities and resources that you’ll be able to find on PartnerUp.

Why did we decide to sell PartnerUp? The answer is mostly Lee Schram, the CEO of Deluxe, and the team that he’s assembled. In my career, I’ve had an opportunity to meet a lot of CEOs and leadership teams, but I’ve never met a management team who so passionately recognizes where they want to be, has such a strong sense of urgency, and is willing to commit the resources necessary to get there. Lee and his team truly understand PartnerUp and our model, and their excitement about our business was one of the key factors in our decision to sell to Deluxe.

This is an exciting time both for everyone here at PartnerUp. We look forward to taking things to the next level here and working hard to give you the tools and resources that help you do the same with your company.