Utah deals in 2014 significantly increased over past years validating the strong and growing business climate in the state as reported by the 20th annual MountainWest Capital Network Deal Flow Report released Friday at the Utah Deal Flow Event.
According to the report, 541 deals took place among Utah businesses— 301 private placements; 217 merger and acquisitions; and 23 public deals. In 2013, there were 426 deals, 294 in 2012 and 182 in 2011.
“It is clear there is a sustained upward trend of deals closed in Utah each year,” said Ryan Dent, chairman, MWCN Deal Flow committee. “The Deal Flow data strongly validates the ongoing strength in the Utah economy and the strong business climate 2014 showed strong growth in all categories of deals led by the software, healthcare and services segments.”
Highlights from the report:
- With six public offerings, 2014 had the highest number of IPO’s in recent memory. By dollar amount, 2014 was the second highest year of public market activity in the last seven with greater than $1.5 billion in deals. Healthy stock market valuations and performance adds to public market activity.
- Sustained improvement in economic conditions, continued favorable credit markets, and increased corporate cash / private equity capital all contributed to increased M&A activity. Large sized transactions influenced dollar volume as the top ten M&A transactions increased from $5.5B to $8.7B year over year.
- Private placements had the biggest year on record with 301 deals totaling more than $1.6 billion.
You can download the full Deal Flow report here: http://www.mwcn.org/deal-flow/#
During 2014 there were four Utah companies with private placements over $100 million – Qualtrics ($150 million), Pluralsight, ($135 million), Domo, ($125 million) and Insidesales.com ($100 million).
Pluralsight’s Greg Woodward, chief financial officer and Deal Flow keynote speaker, gave this advise for growing companies, “The pathway to $100 million is to get that first $2 million in revenue, then triple to $6 million, then triple to $18 million, then double to $36 million, $72 million and $144 million. Our secret sauce is our people. If you have clarity on the people you want to hire, then you will be bringing in the right people to be successful.”
The MWCN Deal Flow report represents the most comprehensive and complete annual assessment of capital raising and M&A transactions compiled in Utah. The Deal Flow Report does not contain information on transactions that were either confidential or otherwise not publicly disclosed.
The Deal Flow Report is published each year by MWCN in order to further its mission to foster the dynamic flow of information about capital formation and distribution, educate and mentor excellence, recognize and reward business success and performance and foster relationships through networking.
MWCN members, sponsors, and guest’s of the Deal Flow conference and luncheon receive the Deal Flow Report. A PDF copy of the book will be made available at http://www.mwcn.org.
