One encouraging theme from the first annual UBS Global Technology Forum on Tuesday was that M&A in the high-tech industry is busier than in most other sectors, with midmarket activity holding stable and a handful of notable hostile transactions offering advisory opportunities. Otherwise, it's tough out there.Bankers at the event, held near the heart of the U.S. tech scene in Palo Alto, Calif., said fees from technology deals will be down at least 25% on the year. If they're lucky. It would be worse if a resilient M&A market weren't helping to offset the dismal IPO and debt financing markets.
Brian Webber, global head of technology investment banking at UBS, said the global fee pool for all technology deals should total about $3 billion this year, a steep drop from the $6 billion in fees reaped in 2007 and an even sharper fall-off, not surprisingly, from the $12.1 billion collected in 2000 at the height of the Internet boom. The fees this year would put 2008 on par with levels in 2002 in the aftermath of the dot-com bust.
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