Technology Barometer - Q4 2011
The Taylor Wessing Technology Barometer is a new quarterly report providing a brief overview of the trading environment, board room confidence, valuations and M&A activity within the UK technology sector.
This report has been prepared by Taylor Wessing and Megabuyte, a leading company intelligence service for the UK technology sector.
In the first report, we find that despite the gloomy trading environment the majority of technology company leaders are still optimistic about their company's prospects over the next 12 months. It will be interesting to see how such confidence holds up in future quarterly reports. M&A activity remains steady, but is largely focused on a few hot spots, for example infrastructure software. In fundraising, while it was predicted that private equity would remain the primary funding source for UK tech companies whilst stock market activity would remain subdued, we did not expect such divergent levels of activity between the two areas. On the HP / Autonomy mega-deal that happened during Q3, Tim Stocks, head of the capital markets team at Taylor Wessing, has this to say:
"Whilst in September 2011, it may look as though the departure of a major business like Autonomy from the London market is a serious blow, in the medium term the picture is very different. What the HP/Autonomy deal demonstrates is real wealth creation in the UK tech market. It underscores the fact that money can be made from early stage investment in tech. The gains will hopefully be recycled to support more tech start-ups and entrepreneurs in the UK."
Lawyers Tim Stocks, Graham Hann
