São Paulo – Last year there were 56 deals involving Internet companies in Brazil, over half of which were operations in which foreigners acquired domestic companies. Research Mergers and Acquisitions, by KPMG, involves 43 sectors and the Internet was the third in the number of deals.
According to figures disclosed by the consultancy company, there was growth of 124% in operations in the sector in 2012 as against 2011, when there were 25 mergers and acquisitions. Of the total for last year, 55.3% were foreign companies that acquired Brazilian ones, with 31 deals.
Due to the growth, Internet companies started being counted in the KPMG research, tallied in a separate sector. “The sector is developing constantly and had record growth if compared to the other business areas analysed. It is still difficult to imagine the limit in the Internet world, so we believe that the tendency is still for growth,” said the partner at KPMG, Luis Motta, according to a company press statement.
The Internet sector, however, presented fewer mergers and acquisitions in the last quarter of the year, as was the case in other sectors. There were nine operations from October to December 2012, against 19 in the second quarter of the year and 13 in the first. But the volume was above that recorded for the last quarter of 2011, with three more transactions.
*Translated by Mark Ament
