M&A Facts 'n Stats: May 2015

Mergermarket Uncovers Some Interesting M&A Data

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Mergermarket has released its Q1 2015 M&A trend report for the Northeast, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Take a look at the full report HERE.

A few key findings include:
  • M&A activity in the Northeast in the first three months of 2015 started at a slow pace. The total deal value in the region dropped by 27.4% from US$ 57.3bn in Q1 2014 to US$ 41.7bn in Q1 2015, making it the lowest-valued first quarter since Q1 2012
     
  • At the same time, overall US M&A value increased by 57.7% between 2014 and this year, and, as a result of the two diverging trends, Northeastern contribution to US M&A value decreased to 12.2% from 26.5% in Q1 2014
     
  • The largest transaction in Q1 2015 occurred in the TMT sector, with Charter Communications acquiring Bright House Networks for US$ 10.4bn, in line with Charter’s corporate strategy to grow its market. With the largest deal of last year, Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner for US$ 68.5bn, lapsing due to antitrust concerns, Charter will no longer be able to acquire Time Warner’s cable systems serving approximately 4.3 million video customers. Announced in April 2014 and conditional upon the Time Warner-Comcast deal, the move would have quadrupled Charter’s subscriber base from 1.4 million to 5.7 million. The acquisition of Bright House, while not providing as wide of a reach as the purchase of Time Warner assets, will, nonetheless, add about 2 million customers to Charter’s customer portfolio