About 460 companies were bought for $46.4 billion last year, down 13% from 2010, but the deals were valued 30% higher, compared with the $35.6 billion spent in 2010, according to a Dow Jones VentureSource report.
The median price vaulted 77% to $71 million in 2011. Funding rounds were down 12%, to an average of $17 million raised before exit, reflecting lower start-up costs.
"Acquisitions of companies liquidating their assets were halved in 2011 and companies are benefiting from lower start-up costs by taking capital farther toward a larger acquisition," noted Jessica Canning, global research director for VentureSource, in prepared remarks.
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Medtronic’s (NYSE:MDT) $800 million purchase of Ardian and Shire’s (NSDQ:SHPGY) $750 million acquisition of Advanced BioHealing made the list of the year’s biggest deals, according to VentureSource.
As for initial public offerings, the median amount raised rose 17% to $85 million last year and the median time it took to reach an IPO fell to 6.5 years from 8.1 years. There was 1 more IPO in 2011 than in 2010, but the total amount investors pumped into the 45 newly public companies reached $5.4 billion – a 63% increase over 2010. That’s largely due to a pair of blockbuster IPOs by Groupon (NSDQ:GRPN) and Zynga (NSDQ:ZNGA), which together pulled in $1.7 billion.
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Henry Schein buys Oak Hill out of animal health division
Henry Schein (NSDQ:HSIC) acquired all of Oak Hill Capital Partners’ remaining stake in Butler Schein Animal Health for $155 million in cash, giving it a 71.5% share in Butler. Read more
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Aetna buys iTriage maker Healthagen
Aetna (NYSE:AET) acquired Healthagen, the maker of mobile app iTriage, which provides information about medical issues and finds nearby health care providers. Read more
QuadraMed to acquire NCR’s health care units
QuadraMed Corp. closed a definitive agreement with NCR Corp. (NYSE:NCR) to acquire NCR healthcare solutions. Read more
