One of the first few questions an entrepreneur selling his company asks himself is: "How much is my company worth and how can I increase the value of my company?"

Last December, the Dutch "Software VOC" - a division of ICT Office - organized a session in Woerden about benchmarking for a software company. How can a CEO of a software house establish whether its performing  well?

The reluctance of last year's merger and acquisition market have provided the large IT companies with a nice war chest. Valuations have not increased and the stock market is improving.

Once the economic climate stabilizes, an acquisition wave is in the air and can’t be far ahead. The climate is favorable for many IT companies but unfortunately the banks are not very cooperative yet.

Despite the challenging economic times supporting and developing talented people remains of great importance in business. Competence, Performance and talent management are topics that are increasingly gaining ground within the HCM (Human Capital Management) process.

The acquisition of SuccessFactors by SAP in 2011 was arguably the start of a takeover wave in small SAAS companies who offer staffing and recruitment software. The SuccessFactors deal reached completion this quarter.

Everybody is talking about Facebook with the recent announcement that they are preparing to go public through an initial public offering (IPO), the biggest tech IPO since Google. Reports have said the price could value the company between $75 and $100 billion. What does this mean for Facebook’s M&A strategy?

In its IPO filing Facebook revealed that it spent $68 million in cash and stock on acquisitions in 2011. Raising $5 billion in capital will give Facebook the leverage to look for bigger deals and might be a sign of a very acquisitive year.

The continuation of two mega-deals (SAP & HP) this quarter is remarkable, despite the difficult times in which we now find ourselves where as effect a substantial reduction in the number of transactions has taken place. The fact remains however that especially in the beginning of Q4 market dynamics where still very much in motion.

Detron and 2e2 Netherlands have completed the acquisition of two units of 2e2 Netherlands, namely 2e2  Integration & Services and 2e2 Skilled Resources, by Detron, one of the larger Dutch independent business IT & telecom services to SMEs and mid-business market. Both parties are very happy and positive about the process and the final transaction.

CIC acted on behalf of the Detron ICT & Telecom Group, is co-initiator of this project and has successfully advised, brokered and assisted in the actual completion of the purchase / sale process. This is the third time since 2008 that CIC has realized a transaction with Detron.

The acquired business will be placed in the newly formed division Detron ICT Solutions, of which includes Detron subsidiary Kender Thijssen will also be part of.

After working together succesfully on several projects this year we are proud to announce Andy Rooswinkel as the new associate partner and dealmaker with team CIC. 

Andy Rooswinkel (49) studied Business Economics and started as a trainer of accounting software at Compu’Train B.V. in the Netherlands. Andy than moved to the ERP vendor Unit 4 Software B.V.  First  active in channel sales followed by chairing the SMB division. Few years later promoted to the management board. Andy was responsible for worldwide alliances; product management; marketing and co-responsible for mergers and acquisitions. Part of Andy's track record includes his contribution to a very successful IPO and various acquisitions thereafter including post acquisition activities.

The annual Gartner ITxpo symposium has started this week in Barcelona. Gartner reported that worldwide security services spending is on pace to reach 35.1 billion dollars in 2011. More and more organizations prefer to take up IT security as a service. Gartner expects sales in IT security will grow to over 49 billion dollars in 2015.

This quarter was marked by increasing uncertainty in the merger and acquisition market by the Euro crisis and the economic / fiscal problems in the U.S. Still a few surprising planned mega deals, but larger and medium-sized deals are postponed. Smaller acquisitions however with a solid strategic focus on growth have been undiminished.