Synopses & Reviews
Since 2000, technology companies have experienced dramatic losses in public market valuation. The question is whether this decline in prices opened the door for a concept hardly yet applied to this sector: leveraged and management buyouts.
Tilman E. Pohlhausen explains why buyouts of companies in the technology sector have barely taken place and why this is changing. He shows how the attractiveness of a buyout target can be estimated, what makes analyzing technology buyouts different from traditional buyouts, and why there might be opportunities for private equity investors in the European technology markets. The author provides a free MS Excel model on the book's accompanying web-site that allows the screening of major technology indices using a fully adjustable scoring model to identify potentially attractive buyout targets.
Synopsis
Foreword The public market valuation of technology companies throughout the 1990s is probably one of the most interesting phenomena in recent financial history. No sector has generated more enthusiasm among investors, and no sector has created more millionaires, albeit mostly on paper. Once the bubble burst, the correction process was brutal. The price of technology companies dropped by over 70 percent on average, and a significant number of companies went out of business, while others were simply avoided by the investment community. I Tilman Pohlhausen asks a valid question: Did this downturn in valuation lead to some companies being unjustly undervalued, given their past and expected cash flows? If so, he continues, would such companies be suitable for a concept rarely heard of previously for technology companies: a buyout, possibly even financed to a high degree by debt? The idea is not new. In contrast to Europe, a number of well-financed private equity funds in the United States exclusively target the technology sector for buyouts. What is new, however, is that many more technology companies, because of their lower valuation, could become targets of buyout investors in Europe, as well. Ultimately, with his analysis of the buyout attractiveness of European technology companies, the author attempts to estimate the validity of this perception.
Synopsis
Since the burst of the technology bubble in 2000, the value of technology
companies has been in a fundamental decline. This has led to an interesting
question: Do the post-bubble valuation levels provide ground to a concept
rarely seen in this sector: leveraged and management buyouts?
The book examines:
Why buyouts of technology companies have hardly taken place in the past,
and why this is changing
How the attractiveness of a buyout can be estimated
What makes analyzing technology buyouts different from traditional
companies
Why there might be buyout opportunities among European technology
companies
The author provides a free Microsoft Excel based model on an accompanying
web site that allows the screening of major technology indices, using a
fully adjustable scoring application to identify attractive buyout targets.
This book is a must read for anybody in the mergers & acquisitions,
technology, and private equity business.
Synopsis
Tilman E. Pohlhausen explains why buyouts of companies in the technology sector have barely taken place and why this is changing. He shows how the attractiveness of a buyout target can be estimated, what makes analyzing technology buyouts different from traditional buyouts, and why there might be opportunities for private equity investors in the European technology markets.
About the Author
Tilman E. Pohlhausen ist als Analyst bei JP Morgan in London tätig.
Table of Contents
The market for leveraged and management buyouts
The emergence of technology buyouts
Overview of leveraged buyout valuation
Simplified valuation model
Adjusting for technology risk and return
European technology market screening