October Dashboard: GitHub deal fuels big month of acquisitions, fundraising tops $11 bln

October may have been a punishing month for the U.S. stock market, but M&A soared thanks to the close of the GitHub deal. Meanwhile, fundraising continued its record-setting pace on the year as funds combined to close in excess of $11 billion during the month.

The value of deals also climbed, and IPOs remained virtually the same, compared with the month before.

The following indices are based on preliminary data from Thomson Reuters.

Fundraising (value up 663%)

Fundraising was robust in October as 37 U.S.-based firms raised more than $11.5 billion in commitments during the month. That’s more than seven times the $1.5 billion that 40 funds raised the month before. Tiger Global Management led the way, amassing $3.75 billion for its 11th venture fund, which was 50 percent larger than the $2.5 billion it raised for its previous fund in 2015. Bessemer Venture Partners also came up big, raising $1.85 billion for its 10th fund in October. The two funds are the largest of the year and helped pushed total fundraising through the first 10 months of the year to $41.7 billion.

Deals (value up 21.5%)

The preliminary deal count dropped slightly in October, but the amount invested in U.S. companies rose. A total of 387 U.S.-based companies raised more than $9.8 billion in October, compared with 399 deals raising nearly $8.1 billion in September. That’s a 21.5 percent decrease in dollars invested. Leading the way was Epic Games, which raised $1.25 billion from Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others. Continuing a trend that began in Q3, October saw 16 deals worth $100 million or more. Those deals combined for $4.8 billion, or nearly half of the total in the month.

M&A (value up 1,973%)

M&A numbers spiked thanks to the final close in late October of Microsoft’s acquisition of venture-backed GitHub for $7.5 billion. It ranks as the largest VC-backed acquisition of 2018. For the full month, 28 venture-backed companies were bought, with 11 disclosing transaction prices for a combined value of $12.6 billion. In September, 15 companies were sold, including just two with disclosed details, for a transaction total of $610 million. The October data included not just the mega-deal for GitHub, but also the $2.35 billion Cisco paid to acquire Duo Security.

IPOs (value up 1.5%)

IPO activity remained steady. A total of 12 VC-backed companies went public on U.S. exchanges, compared with nine the month before. The combined value of the October IPO proceeds rose slightly to $2.15 billion from $2.12 billion the month before. Biotech companies continued to lead the way in the number of new venture-backed issues. The largest IPO of the month came from Allogene Therapeutics. The company, which targets non-Hodgkin lymphoma, raised more than $370 million in its debut. Before going public, it pulled in $300 million from Pfizer Venture Investments, TPG Growth and Vida Ventures.

Source: Thomson Reuters