Category: Market Insights

We consistently observe the evolving demand for our clients from the financial sponsor community as the leading strategic, financial advisor to many of the fastest growing independent consulting and IT services firms. Historically, clients that generated a significant portion of revenue from project-based consulting work faced opposition from many private equity firms. Why have businesses … Continued

On February 09, 2017, Deloitte, a global provider of consulting, audit, tax, and financial advisory services, announced it had acquired Red Planet Ventures Limited (“Red Planet”), an innovation strategy and digital consulting firm based in Dublin, Ireland, for an undisclosed amount. Red Planet’s three full time employees will join the Deloitte Digital team, and plan … Continued

Regulators continue to show aggressive tactics as the Yates Memo guidelines continue to drive prosecutorial strategies.  As the 2015 memo stated, there is an increased effort and focus being placed on individual accountability, as further evidenced by D.A.G. Yates’s comments delivered on Nov. 30th at the International FCPA conference.

There are market rumors indicating Xerox and DTI have offered to acquire Epiq Systems Inc. (“Epiq” or the “Company”) for between $14 and $16 per share.  The high end of this range, $16 per share, represents a 36% premium to the trailing 30-day average share price leading up to these rumors.  This may look like … Continued

Data is the new oil. That was the headline just a couple years ago. While the price of data has not experienced the same downward trajectory as oil as the product floods the market, a maturing of the big data market has changed the predictions and outlook for 2016. The big data market has pivoted … Continued

Avnet, Inc. announced last week that it acquired ExitCertified, a certified provider of IT training for leading technology platforms including Amazon Web Services, Oracle, SAP, and Symantec, to name a few.  Commonly known as an IT hardware value added reseller (“VAR”), Avnet’s recent acquisition reinforces our view that VARs are actively seeking opportunities to acquire … Continued

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Fed raised its target funds rate. This is not a surprise as the Fed has been signaling this action for months and the “zero” interest rate environment couldn’t last forever. Given easy credit has often been identified as a driving force for the premium values paid … Continued

2015 will cap off another solid growth year for the Consulting Industry. Specifically, we expect the Management Consulting market to grow to over $175 billion in the United States alone and over $350 billion globally. What are the hottest areas within consulting that we expect to continue garnering attention in 2016?

The large, strategy consulting firms have been showing more interest in M&A over the past 18 months and as predicted, we are now seeing deals announced. 

Over the last several months, offshore IT outsourcing firms have announced a series of acquisitions that are forming a pattern.  The acquired targets are small, highly strategic, and most notably, provide higher-end services. The high-end services these targets provide don’t typically command large multiyear contracts but they likely generate materially higher bill rates and gross … Continued

2014 was a year with robust M&A activity and the first quarter of 2015 is proving the pace of consolidation in the eDiscovery industry isn’t slowing down any time soon.  Recently Inventus Solutions, Inc., a portfolio company of Clearlake Capital Group, announced it has acquired London based Unified OS Ltd.

In what was widely considered a banner year for M&A, 2014 was the return of gargantuan deals, largely seller-friendly transaction structures, and premium valuations. In spite of the turbulent equity markets being driven by fluctuating oil prices, a gathering storm in Europe, and uncertainty around rising interest rates, we at Clearsight are already seeing the … Continued

Prior to 2009, we can’t find any meaningful references to Customer Experience as a practice area or segment within the business community. Certainly, the term “CX” hadn’t evolved to refer to the latest, and very rapidly growing, field of Customer Experience until much more recently. While the study of Customer Experience and the rise of … Continued

The underbanked market has been garnering some headlines as of late. Topics range anywhere from the PostMaster General’s report recommending the Postal Service offer financial services to under- and un-banked consumers to how bitcoin may disrupt the status quo (think check cashers and payday lenders) and become the platform of choice for underbanked consumers to … Continued

Fifty billion devices connected in 2020, 80 billion…those are just two of the many forecasts for how many devices (things) will be connected to the internet by 2020. Seven trillion (yes with a “T”) dollars is the most common economic forecast, but we have seen numbers ranging north of $19 trillion. Can any of this … Continued

We attended the International Legal Technology Association’s annual conference in Nashville a few weeks ago.  It was evident the industry is thriving and companies are in a race to grab market share.  We met with executives of companies across the industry value chain, from document management software to e-discovery to management consulting.  The industry is … Continued

Technology to help manage HR in enterprises is nothing new. Payroll technology initially took hold in the 80’s (i.e. Teseract) and Peoplesoft dominated the client server market for HR systems in the 90’s. The Peoplesoft legacy continues but under the banner of Workday, the leading SaaS platform for Human Capital Management.  

Earlier this month, Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm, announced that it made an investment in Bridge Strategy Group, a Chicago-based management consulting firm focused on strategy, operations, and performance improvement. Bridge, founded in 1998 by alumni of McKinsey & Co., works with boards, senior management teams, and financial sponsors to address critical issues that … Continued

The 2nd quarter M&A results are in and Technology M&A is on a tear. The Tech M&A market is up 57% over last year with $52.4 Billion in Global announced M&A in 2Q 2014. What is driving a material chunk of this M&A storm – Cloud Technology/Services. E&Y estimated that 42% of the volume last … Continued

Is it starting to feel like the late nineties again?  When it comes to the digital marketing sector, and web design services firms in particular, you just might think so.   The US web design services market grew 4.5% in 2013 to over $20 billion, representing one of the fastest growing industries since the recession.

Revenue in 2013 from big data (software, hardware and services) reached $18.6 billion, up from $11.6 billion in 2012 (according to Wikibon), an impressive 58% growth over the previous year.  No doubt the big data market is enormous and growing quickly, but one of the main inhibitors to growth is the lack of professional services … Continued

We have been predicting that the sales training landscape would undergo substantial consolidation for two years now. Given the fragmented nature of the industry, intensifying competitive dynamics and need to innovate like never before in order to meet rapidly changing client needs, consolidation was the only thing that made sense to us. It’s always nice when … Continued

Not surprisingly, in the 2014 Compliance Trends Survey conducted by Deloitte and Compliance Week, third-party risk management was identified as the leading area of concern for compliance managers surveyed:  “Third party relationships continue to be a prime source of anxiety for small and large companies alike. A sizable 85% of respondents said they are somehow … Continued

Most of our clients are laser focused on the amount of any proceeds held in escrow to cover breaches of reps and warranties and pay much less attention to the indemnification cap (“Cap”).  The logic behind such discrepancy is oftentimes misguided as sellers are solely focused on that coveted “cash at close” amount.  The escrow … Continued

According to data compiled by Capital IQ, year-to-date the Metropolitan DC Capital Markets have seen a slight uptick in deal activity with nearly 100 M&A and private placement deals announced through May 2014 (excludes real estate related deals.).

The rise of Big Data in the public sector has sparked innovation, driven efficiency, and fueled economic development. Its transformative potential will shape the future citizen engagement and reshape the relationships between residents and government, especially at the local level. And it is about to dramatically change the public sector M&A landscape as well.

Facebook makes a blockbuster move and acquires WhatsApp for $19 billion. Is that the sign that we have reached a silly overheated M&A market? Last month we hit $1.2 trillion of global M&A volume, the highest dollar volume since 2007, when we hit $1.4 trillion in the same time-period. Banks are back lending to the … Continued

The talent assessment space has seen strong M&A activity over the past 18 months. We view talent assessment as being a strategically important component of broader HR and talent management solutions across software (Taleo, SuccessFactors, Workday), services (Hay Group, Aon Hewitt, Korn Ferry) and data (Corporate Executive Board, Wiley) vendors. Several players across the broader … Continued

A.T. Kearney (“ATK”) recently announced it is bringing on three senior leaders from Kurt Salmon’s Private Equity practice. ATK has been through its ups and downs over the past 20 years, but with the changing landscape in the management consulting sector, ATK is once again well positioned for future growth.

Despite reports that overall deal activity in 2013 is sluggish, the Metropolitan DC commercial market continues to attract investors. Some noteworthy transactions for the month of November include:

A few weeks ago, Oracle announced the acquisition of Big Machines, a leading provider of sales automation technology. The investors in Big Machines included JMI Equity and Vista Equity Partners. Interestingly enough, Salesforce was also a small investor in the business given the tightly integrated technology between the two parties. The deal is rumored to … Continued

Social media may surpass “Big Data” in hype – if that’s possible – but once you cut beyond the exaggerated promises, you find that enterprises are quickly being reshaped by social media tools. Social media is a genuine game changer for business. Many companies recognize the potential of social media as a new communications channel, … Continued

Click on the link below for information on recent deals and financings in Big Data.  Clearsight Big Data Dish 10.23.13

With the government and defense sectors retreating [due to sequestration] and a sluggish global M&A market, one would think, capital markets activity in the DC metro market has ground to a halt. While this may be true among the region’s Federal Government contracting community, which has dominated the landscape for the better part of a … Continued

Recent cross border M&A activity at Clearsight would lead one to believe that foreign buyers are aggressively moving in on US-based businesses and fueling the US deal machine.   Two of our recent clients, Stratigent and JackBe both inked very attractive deals with foreign companies that eagerly wanted into the US market and highly valued the … Continued

Early last week India’s Parliament passed the much anticipated Companies Bill. This legislation replaces the 50 year old Companies Act which had provided the regulatory framework for much of India’s corporate & securities laws. This new modern bill is much better suited to bring India’s corporate sector into the 21st Century.

Cambridge Associates recently released its fund benchmarking report which substantiated what many of us in the transaction world were well aware of – Growth Equity is where the action is. The study revealed that Growth Equity funds outperformed both Venture and Buyout Funds over the last 5 & 10 year periods. As an advisor to … Continued

Click below for the July edition of Clearsight’s Big Data Dish Clearsight’s Big Data Dish July 2013

More than ever before, today’s chief marketing officer has exciting new tools to drive digital marketing campaigns and a seemingly endless list of vendors from which to choose.  Modern software toolkits and SaaS models help deliver speed, agility and simplicity of development with the cloud as a major enabler. One of those emerging and increasingly essential … Continued

As we have discussed previously, we are seeing an increasing demand for companies that provide Compliance Solutions to their clients. There seem to be several strategic reasons that these companies are in demand. The most prevalent and often cited reason is the end customers “mandatory requirement” to solve for compliance monitoring/reporting responsibilities – which means … Continued

Ever since 9/11 and the resulting emphasis on Security at the Federal level, the State and Local technology market has been treated as the red-headed stepchild of the Public Sector.  There was an incredible amount of M&A activity accompanied by robust valuations in the Federal market for the past 11 years. Conversely, the state and … Continued

Click on the link below to read our latest edition of the Big Data Dish – recent deal annoucements in the Big Data Market. Clearsight Big Data Dish 5.23.13

For the uninitiated, XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a freely available and global standard for exchanging business information. More importantly, it has become the standard by which publicly traded companies are required to report their financial statements to the SEC.

With 2012 now in the rear-view mirror, investors are fully focused on 2013 and what the year will bring in terms of M&A. According to FactSet Research, M&A volumes and values in 2012 deteriorated from 2011, total deal value fell around 7% and volumes decreased 2%. However, particular sectors including Brokerage, Investment & Management Consulting, … Continued

For most entrepreneurs and owners of privately held businesses, selling their business is one of the most important and difficult decisions they will ever make. It would be logical to assume that business owners would take a very deliberate and methodical approach when preparing to sell their business. Unfortunately, for most the decision to sell … Continued

As Big Data continues to attract investor attention, technology vendors are reaching for more sophisticated services partners who can help customers achieve the promises of Big Data. IT services vendors focused on high-end data analytics and forensics are being sought after at a precipitous rate. While we at Clearsight are certainly also interested in data … Continued

The deal community – bankers, lawyers and private equity firms are extremely busy trying to get deals done prior to year end. This flurry of activity is driven primarily by sellers looking to avoid adverse tax consequences expected to come in 2013. Considering the volume of deals expected to close by year end deal makers … Continued

As we have opined on several occasions, the historic silos of software, services and data are converging across many sectors to provide powerful solutions to the end clients. The Digital Marketing sector is beginning to see significant momentum in the convergence across platforms to deliver an unprecedented and powerful new set of tools to the … Continued

Yesterday was Election Day in the United States. There are elections of some variety almost every year – but clearly the one that garners the most attention is the one every four years when a majority of the population turns out to elect the President. Just as so much of business these days is regulated, … Continued

Although often misused and over-used, Big Data is far more than just a catchphrase. Insurmountable amounts of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data are bombarding corporate servers, networks, websites, phone systems, etc. each day. Although this exponential growth in data provides the foundation, it is not in and of itself Big Data. It is the ability … Continued

As unprecedented volumes of sensitive data continue to migrate towards shared spaces, social networking sites, and cloud platforms, we all become increasingly vulnerable to attack. Consumers and corporations alike place an enormous level of trust in online and database security systems even though the security supporting these platforms may not be secure enough, given what … Continued

Big Data. It’s everywhere and everyone is talking about what it is, what it’s not and how to deal with it – or make some money with it.

At Clearsight we are strident believers that Technology, Services and Data are converging and that businesses are looking for more complete solutions as opposed to trying to cobble together pieces of a puzzle.

Many argue that what doesn’t kill you simply makes you stronger; the evolution of M&A during what has become known as the “Great Recession” may serve as the ideal case study for such an assertion.

Across the board, the supply chain software industry is seeing a resurgence of activity as the sentiments for investing in SCM solutions for 2012 and beyond are strong and mirror what we were seeing in 2008 before the economic downturn.

Splunk made its public market debut nearly 2 weeks ago and has been on fire since. The stock closed April 19th with an increase of over 109% from the IPO price, extremely impressive for an initial public offering and one of the best opening day performances of 2012. Originally, Splunk’s seven underwriters set a range … Continued

We have been writing about the heightened activity and interest in the Compliance space for the last several months. As further evidence to support those assertions, we had two notable events announced last week. First, on the deal front, GlobalOptions announced the acquisition of SIU Compliance Solutions. The combined company now offers a broader anti-fraud … Continued

The Clearsight team attended the AFCEA Big Data Technology Symposium: Transforming Massive Data into Better Outcomes to keep a finger on the pulse of what the government is thinking about in the Big Data space. Although much of the conversation actually hovered around what we at Clearsight call Business Intelligence 1.0, we did see a … Continued

Over the last several months, there has been a good deal of debate on SharePoint – it’s effectiveness, complexity, business user adoption, time-to-value, market size, etc. Although opinions vary widely on all of these issues, what is indisputable is that SharePoint is a dominant platform in the broader ECM market and is gaining momentum. A … Continued

A few months ago we wrote about the Enormous Market for Compliance Solutions. Our team has been focused on the space for the past three years and we continue to see increasing activity and growth in the market. More importantly, the Private Equity community and larger strategic aquirors are finally waking up to the tremendous … Continued

The Big Data analytics space is growing so rapidly and in such unexpected new directions that its difficult to imagine what the landscape will look like in a few years. The need for organizations to process enormous volumes of data collected through social media and other sources is forcing massive change across just about every … Continued

If you look back a couple of years ago, the majority of all of the M&A and financing deal activity in the Education space was focused on For Profit Post-Secondary Schools. The times have certainly changed. Given the regulatory challenges that the For-Profit Education Sector has endured over the past few years, coupled with the … Continued

We recently participated in a round table discussion with a well known venture and growth equity firm to discuss trends we are seeing across the financial technology landscape. When asked about our broad thoughts on the state of financial technology, we promptly answered — “we believe that financial technology is the defining factor in the post-crisis … Continued

What market has grown 18%, 21% or 40% over the past three years? The Compliance Market! I don’t know which statistics to believe, but what I do know is that whether it is 18% or 40%, the bottom line is that Compliance as an industry has grown immeasurably during an extremely difficult business climate for … Continued

Four years ago it was almost unheard of for a Big 4 firm to engage in M&A with the exception of the post Enron period when each (except Deloitte) sold their consulting business.  Not only have each of the Big 4 re-focused efforts on consulting (as opposed to accounting), but they are employing M&A as … Continued