Utah’s business mergers and acquisitions reached an all-time high last year. That’s according to a report from the MountainWest Capitol Network to be released on Thursday this week.
The 2012 Deal Flow Report shows that there were 292 deals, topping 11 billion dollars. Of those, 110 were mergers and acquisitions of Utah companies. Devin Thorpe is President of the MountainWest Capitol Network, and he says 2012 deals increased more than 60% over the year before.
“This is really the most exciting report MountainWest Capitol Network has ever published, and we’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years,” Thorpe says. “We’ve never had a year like this really in terms of the number of deals and the total value.”
In one of the the largest acquisitions in Utah history, Vivint was acquired by Blackstone Group for 2 billion dollars. Ancestry.com was also acquired by Permira for 1.6 billion dollars – the largest acquisition by a foreign buyer. Thorpe credits a strong Utah economy.
“Think of it as a report card by objective outsiders on our business community. We’re seeing this tremendous flow of transactions, and it really is a good sign for Utah,” Thorpe says.
Software, technology, and Internet companies lead all other sectors, with 39 percent of the deals.
