Anyone for M&A?
Jinfo Blog

2nd August 2010

By Anne Jordan

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Hot on the heels of its re-launch of Zephyr, the global M&A deal database, Bureau van Dijk has announced a new M&A online resource, which brings together M&A news, reports, information on forthcoming events, and access to some of the deal information from Zephyr’s database. For those working with constrained budgets, or freelancers like myself with ad-hoc needs, it is particularly useful to find a rich M&A resource, where the information is mostly free, and the deal information is available on a pay-as-you-go basis. The new M&A Portal (http://www.mandaportal.com) provides a range of free information. Weekly, monthly, quarterly and half-yearly reports on M&A activity are available, which give the number of deals and deal values for a geographic area or activity. There are feature articles on current issues of interest and a blog by Lisa Wright, Zephyr’s director, about hot topics and reflecting on recent news and trends in M&A, private equity, venture capital and IPOs. The portal has a section listing reports by other organisations, which can be viewed by geography. There’s also a calendar for upcoming events. I found the M&A news section of interest, as users can create their own M&A news feeds on a selection of 36 different sectors, and this generates links from the home page and tailored tabs. You need to register to do this, but registration is free. The only drawback for me was the absence of “financial services” as a sector. The M&A Portal also provides access to the Zephyr database – albeit with much reduced functionality when compared to a full subscription. Type in a keyword and then refine by geography and/or industry. Search results can be sorted by deal value, date or status, with basic details of the deal displayed, and the user can then download a full deal record using a credit or debit card for GBP36 per deal. Specialist M&A researchers will certainly want a full subscription to Zephyr or alternative products, as the deal search capability is limited, and output is restricted to just the deal report. However for many of us, this portal offers a cost-effective way of accessing specific deal information on an ad hoc basis. The M&A Portal could provide Bureau van Dijk with additional earnings from the Zephyr database, if the revenues exceed the costs. I wonder if further products from their suite will follow suit. For readers interested in Zephyr, I wrote a full product review for VIP Magazine’s July edition, which can be purchased from the FreePint Shop at http://web.freepint.com/go/shop/report/1679/ .

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