贝克·麦坚时国际律师事务所近日发布《2022 TMT展望：科技并购》（TMT Looking Ahead 2022: Tech Mergers & Acquisitions）报告，指出科技产业将继续驱动全球并购市场，尤其5G科技及物联网，将成为重要的并购交易驱动因素。
“科技投资能够改变商业运营的规模及本质。因此，人工智能、云计算、分布式账本技术这样的可拓展技术越来越受到并购活动关注。”贝克麦坚时亚太智慧财产权和科技业务部负责人刘芳君律师说。
中国将继续扮演领衔角色，受政策驱动，科技板块仍受到中国投资者的强烈关注。
“从政策角度看，中国继续鼓励企业在合适的板块展开合适的出境交易，科技、健康、能源都属于这一范畴。”奋迅·贝克麦坚时中国私募股权业务部门主管张宏律师说。
“虽然科技板块遭遇更高强度审查，中国大型科技公司对海外拓张仍抱持强烈兴趣，并继续寻求在中国以外获得新技术、拓展产品组合、获取新客户的合适机会。”
报告同时强调，知识产权和数据将继续成为科技并购中的核心驱动元素，它们对于数字产品和服务的变现至关重要。因此，应在并购策略中强调对数据保护立法及合规实践进展的关注。
私募股权公司也将继续作为科技企业的重要投资者，尤其基金希望拥有更为多元的资产类型，包括技术、物联网，以及与之相关的技术生态。
同时，大量美国上市的SPAC正在寻求并购目标，亚太地区的科技公司愈发得到它们的青睐。
报告还提醒，2022年合规团队务必关注多区域的外国投资审查规则变化，它们可能对全球科技并购交易产生重要影响。
China’s Big Tech continue to show interests for technology M&A, says new report
A new “TMT Looking Ahead 2022: Tech Mergers & Acquisitions” report released by Baker McKenzie shows that the technology industry will continue to drive the global M&A market, with the advent of 5G technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) being a big M&A deal driver.
"Investment in technology is seen as a way to alter the scale and nature of business operations. As a result, scalable technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and distributed ledger technology are increasingly becoming the focus of M&A activity." says Isabella Liu, head of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Intellectual Property and Technology Group.
China will continue to lead the way, with the technology sector attracting strong interest from Chinese investors, driven in part by China's policies.
"From a policy perspective, China continues to encourage companies to do the right outbound transactions in the right sectors, and the technology sector is among the list, along with healthcare and energy," says Zhang Hong, head of private equity at Baker McKenzie FenXun (FTZ) Joint Operation.
"In spite of the heightened scrutiny in the tech sector, China's Big Tech companies remain strongly interested in overseas expansion, and will continue to look for the right opportunities to gain access to new technology or grow product portfolio or customer base outside of China."
The report also highlights that IP and data will remain essential drivers in any tech M&A deal as they are key to monetizing digital products and services. Therefore, key developments in data protection laws and regulatory practice will need to be factored into acquisition strategies.
Private equity firms will remain key investors in technology companies, particularly as funds continue to look to diversify into new asset classes, including tech, IoT and the ecosystems that support them.
Meanwhile, with a large number of US-listed SPACs now seeking acquisition targets, technology companies in Asia Pacific are increasingly being targeted by SPACs to complete business combinations.
The report also rings the bell that in 2022, regulatory teams must keep up to date on the multitude of Foreign Investment Review regimes likely to be in play in global tech deals.