Yellow vests, a “hard” Brexit and possible trade wars. Many IT entrepreneurs are getting a bit restless from the current news and wonder, where do we stand in 2019 and what strategic direction with regard to mergers & acquisitions
should I follow?

The upward trend for mergers and acquisitions in the IT markets continued unabated in 2017. The positive investment climate can be seen in the overall deal flow of the Technology sector and the clear buy & build strategy of IT service providers and private equity operating at home and abroad.

The first and second quarter of 2017 produced a new record for the M&A dynamics in the Dutch ICT markets. Strategic buyers and Private Equity have been increasingly active in recent years to identify the various IT markets and to qualify interesting prospects.

If you are a successful ICT entrepreneur, chances are that you will be approached by a strategic buyer who wishes to negotiate directly, quickly and exclusively with you about a possible acquisition.

Despite ominous predictions after Brexit and the unconventional American election campaign with unexpected results, we are approaching the end of the year in one piece! Even more, according to the measured dynamics in the IT market, 2016 will be a peak year for M&A.

For many years Spain has been a popular holiday destination for Dutch people. The popularity of this holiday destination has recently increased partly due to all the turmoil in the political unstable situation in Turkey and the refugee problems in Greece.

Disruptive companies, disruptive technologies and disruptive business. The tagline “disruption” filled the headlines in IT related news this year. But are we entering a time of massive disruption?

The effort vastly improved the company’s planning and execution functions, created and implemented a new stock policy that accounted for specific SKUs and key variables, streamlined the order preparation process and reduced distribution transport times.

As anyone who has been following the current financial news and macro economic developments knows, the recovery of the (International) M&A market has continued unabated in 2014 and led to the highest number of transactions in the first half of this year since the beginning of the financial crisis.

For many IT entrepreneurs the reason for a merger or acquisition is often an exit after years of doing business in the same company, but also because a possible joining with a third party can increase the enterprise value and future prospects of the company.

Making headlines this week was the acquisition of Amsterdam based software company Innovation Factory by auditing firm KPMG. Innovation Factory is a service provider in IT Innovation and Idea Management software.