Last year may have been relatively quiet in comparison to the stellar heights reached in 2021 but there was no shortage of mega-deals nevertheless. However, the biggest deal announced during 2022 was one that didn’t happen in the end.
In January, Microsoft unveiled the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest video-game maker, in a cash deal valued at $68.7 billion (€63.9 billion). The acquisition would have brought world-leading games franchises Warcraft, Diablo, Call of Duty and Candy Crush into Microsoft’s portfolio but it was ultimately blocked by regulators on competition grounds.
The Redmond, Washington-based software giant’s appetite for new investments remains undimmed and, more recently, it announced a further $10 billion investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.
One major tech deal that did go ahead was semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom’s acquisition of VMWare for $61 billion.
And then came possibly the most talked about deal of them all during 2022 – Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion.
“That provided everyone with an insight into how the M&A market works, albeit from a dysfunctional standpoint,” notes Davy head of technology investment banking Peter Bennett.
At the beginning of the year, Oracle continued the trend of big tech’s move into the healthcare space with the acquisition of Cerner Corporation for $28.3 billion. Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used in hospitals and health services.
The year closed on a high with the announcement in December that Amgen had agreed to buy Dublin-headquartered biotech company Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 billion
Another major technology deal during the year saw AMD acquire Xilinx in an all-share transaction worth $28.3 billion.
The only one of the world’s top five M&A deals in 2022 to come from outside of the technology sector was the merger between Prologis and Duke Realty in June. This brought together two of the world’s leading real-estate logistics businesses in a transaction valued at $26 billion.
Turning to the Irish M&A market, the year closed on a high with the announcement in December that Amgen had agreed to buy Dublin-headquartered biotech company Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 billion, the company’s largest acquisition to date. The deal will add several drugs to Amgen’s already strong portfolio, including thyroid eye disease treatment Tepezza.
Other major deals in Ireland during the year included the SMBC Aviation Capital acquisition of Goshawk Management for €1.5 billion in May and Brookfield Asset Management’s acquisition of Hibernia REIT for €1.13 billion.
In the IT services sector, private equity firm Partners Group acquired the majority stake in Version 1 from fellow private equity fund Volpi Capital for €800 million. Also in the technology space, JP Morgan bought Cork-based fintech Global Shares for a reported €665 million.
Another deal in the IT services sector saw Ergo acquire Asystec in a €25 million deal. The company followed that with the acquisition of BoatyardX, an Irish-based custom software development company. BoatyardX uses leading-edge cloud-native technology to design, build and launch secure and scalable software solutions for customers across North and South America, Europe, northern Africa and southeast Asia. Led by former Grant Thornton managing partner Paul McCann, Ergo is now Ireland’s largest privately owned IT services company.
Global consulting, engineering and construction management company DPS was acquired by Dutch firm Acardis for €232 million.
The consolidation of Ireland’s insurance broking sector continued apace with the acquisition Killarney-based Gallivan Murphy by AssuredPartners for €100 million. Grant Thornton acted as advisers in a number of deals in the sector during the year. They included the acquisition of independent health insurance broker Tailored Finance and Dublin-based ReSure Corporate Brokers, a specialist commercial insurance broker, by NFP.
Eversheds Sutherland advised longstanding client Arachas Corporate Brokers Limited on several transactions during the year, including the acquisition of Glennon Insurances, Stuart Insurances and Apex Insurance.
The firm also advised CastleGate Investments on all legal aspects of the purchase of the entire issued share capital of Sherry FitzGerald Group Ireland Holdings and its investment in Gym Plus Coffee.
Mediahuis, owner of Independent Newspapers, added to its stable of Irish businesses with the acquisition of car listings site Carzone for €30 million.
CRH maintained its long track record of strategic acquisitions with the purchase of Barrette Outdoor Living Inc, North America’s leading provider of residential fencing and railing solutions, for $1.9 billion. This was on top of the $600 million the company spent on no fewer than 11 acquisitions in the first quarter of the year including Texan pipe supplier Rinker Materials and California-based paving and landscaping firm Calstone.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic though, and CRH also sold its Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope business to KPS Capital Partners for $3.1 billion.