Cloud, SaaS, and Managed Services dominating tech industry deals

May 2013

In This Issue

Cloud and SaaS Dominating Tech Industry Deals

Dealing with Strategic or Synergistic Buyers

Building Predicable Revenue - The Role of Strategic Sales Leadership in IT Solution Providers

In many IT solution provider companies the owner is the CEO, lead technical consultant, and chief salesperson. Time management is a struggle for everyone in a growing technology business, especially for the person responsible for generating revenue and managing the entire business. It's a constant struggle between servicing clients, managing staff and vendor relationships, and adding new customers. What to do? There are several actions that any sized company can implement, but smaller VARs must execute brilliantly to survive and grow. In many years of consulting with partners we have seen various stages of maturity where a partner must leap to the next stage or they stall out.

Partner organizations grow at different rates but they all hit "walls" at various stages of development, commonly at 2-10 employees, 10-15 employees, 20-25 employees, and 50+ employees. During this fast-paced session, Ken Thoreson, President of Acumen Management, will share his thoughts, tips, and techniques so that you can have a well-conceived plan that looks forward and eliminates the wasted time and lost profits most partners experience when they hit those walls of defeat.

But what if you are still between 2 and 10 employees, without a stable sales organization? This session will also provide you insights into how to grow and prosper and an action plan that you can implement immediately. Invest in this web cast and learn how to build predictable revenue and an organization that can thrive in challenging times and propel your company to new levels of sustainable growth.

Date: May 22, 2013

Time: 11 AM Central / 12 PM Eastern

Life settlements can unlock hidden cash

Whether you're a buyer or a seller, you're likely looking for ways to increase the value of your M&A transaction. One often-overlooked source you may not have considered is lapsed or surrendered life insurance policies. These policies can provide hundreds of thousands of dollars per policy in "found cash." [Click to read entire article...]

Welcome to our May newsletter. Last month we mentioned our participation in the Alliance for Channel Success. We are pleased to have one of our colleagues in the Alliance, Ken Thoreson, as the featured presenter at our May webinar.

Ken Thoreson is the President of Acumen Management Group. Following a distinguished career in the IT industry, for the past 15 years Ken has provided consulting and coaching services that have ignited the sales efforts for technology companies and solution providers throughout North America. His latest book is "Leading High Performance Sales Teams". Ken is a popular keynote speaker at industry events and writes an award-winning blog at www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com .

Austin Dale Group is an M&A advisory firm that specializes in technology companies. We welcome your inquiries and appreciate your referrals.

John Austin & Bob Dale

info@austindalegroup.com

512-327-0427

Cloud and SaaS dominating tech industry deals

New mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry are reported every week, but the market for the past year has been dominated by cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service businesses, according to a recent report by Ernst & Young.

The global accounting firm recently published a report on the state of M&A in the technology sector, highlighting that the "megatrend" in favor of cloud (including managed services) and SaaS companies is leading the pack of deal-driving trends. Specifically, cloud and SaaS-related mergers accounted for more than 15% of global technology M&A deal volume in 2012. Examples of these deals include supply chain management, sales and marketing SaaS, managed services, and cloud-oriented networking gear. Analysts added that big data and analytics-related deals also saw an increase, but they are still not at the level of Cloud and SaaS deals.

Overall M&A deal activity is still below the 2007 level but technology remains a bright spot. Ernst & Young researchers said that tech deal volume held steady because companies are engaging in smaller transactions motivated by the major technology shifts such as cloud and mobility. The researchers think that most companies are moving cautiously because of risks associated with the uncertain macroeconomic environment.

The final numbers for the first quarter of 2013 are not in, but analysts expect that deal volume will be down compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. For the year, they expect 2013 to be comparable to 2012, with an increasing number of deals in the second half of the year.

Dealing with Strategic or Synergistic Buyers

A strategic or synergistic buyer is one who believes that acquiring another business would complement his or her existing business. By acquiring the new business, this buyer hopes to be able to lower costs, gain new customers, or incur other important benefits and advantages.

[Click to read entire blog...]

M&A advisory and related services for technology companies

512-327-0427

info@austindalegroup.com