by Lorie Roscitt While all attention is fixated on worldwide economic problems, M&A transactions continue to occur under the radar. This week alone, as stock markets around the world continue to decline, several significant deals have been struck -- and at multiples favorable to the target companies. Furthermore, these transactions cut across all sectors that Updata Advisors covers. For example, in the Internet sector, eBay announced Monday that it was spending over $1 billion to acquire three companies; two online classified websites in Denmark for $390 million and $945 million for Bill Me Later, Inc., a provider of online credit. eBay anticipates that Bill Me Later will generate an estimated $150 million in revenue in 2009, which represents a deal value multiple of 6.3x 2009 revenues. Not shabby. In the IT services sector, Tata Consultancy Services today announced its intention to spend $505 million to acquire Citigroup Global Services, an India-based BPO firm which expects to generate revenues of approximately $278 million in 2008, representing a multiple of 1.8x 2008 revenues. This is above the 1.1x median trailing revenue multiple Updata Advisors has observed for companies in the BPO-sector over the past 12 months. Also this morning, Symantec announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MessageLabs, a SaaS-based provider of online messaging and Web security services for a purchase price of approximately $695 million in cash. MessageLabs generated approximately $145 million in revenue during fiscal year ending July 31, 2008, representing a multiple of 4.8x trailing revenues. This compares favorably to the median 2.0x revenue multiples paid for security companies and 3.5x paid for SaaS firms over the past year. The financial technology sector also saw a deal struck this morning as Fundtech Ltd. announced the acquisition of Synergy Financial Systems Ltd. for $6.3 million (including earnouts) which had $2.5 million of trailing 12 months revenues, representing a trailing revenue multiple of 2.5x. Updata Advisors has observed a 2.1x median trailing revenue in the financial technology sector during the past year. Finally, Oracle, who is already a serial buyer of companies, announced the acquisition of Primavera Software this morning. Primavera is a provider of project portfolio management (PPM) solutions. In this case, the deal value was not disclosed. In the past 12 months, Oracle has acquired 11 companies at a total cost exceeding $9 billion. While these transactions are merely anecdotal and the volume of M&A transactions has clearly declined during the current economic and financial malaise, it is heartening to note that good things can happen during bad times. | 
