Private Equity Spotlight: U.S. West Coast by Kevin Dowd, PitchBook
U.S. West Coast
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Everyone knows that Silicon Valley is the thrumming heartbeat of venture capital. But as it turns out, the West Coast of the U.S. is also home to an ever-rising amount of private equity activity. Last year saw an all-time high of 626 deals completed in the region, according to the PitchBook Platform, a 5% YoY increase from 2014—that despite deal count declining in the U.S. as a whole. Over a slightly longer timespan, 2015 activity on the West Coast rose 22% from just two years prior.
Here are some other notable data points from the region:
- A total of 27 IT deals have been completed so far in 2016, accounting for 27% of all PE activity—on track to claim the sector’s largest proportion in the past decade. Transactions in B2C, meanwhile, have made up just 20% of activity this year, the lowest percentage at any time since 2005.
- The most active investor on the West Coast since 2012 is ABRY Partners, with 38 deals completed. Following closely on its heels are The Carlyle Group (35 deals), KKR (31), Hellman & Friedman (27) and Blackstone (26).
- As expected, California is the region’s economic engine, serving as the home to 78% of PE activity in 2016 and 77% in 2015. One state seemingly on the rise is Washington, which has accounted for 15% of all deals in the region thus far this year, up from a general 10-12% range for most of the decade.
There’s plenty more information to explore. PitchBook Platform users can access all our PE data on the West Coast, or change the search parameters to target any other region around the globe.
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