As we move through the early days of 2011, I can’t help but reflect on what happened during December, which is typically a big month for awards. It’s the time of year when I blow the dust off my tuxedo, shine up my shoes and wheel out my annual James Bond impersonation. So, suitably adorned, I attended two award ceremonies last month that celebrated some of the great and the good across the European M&A community.
The first was the European M&A Atlas Awards saluting the top deals, deal-makers and firms from the European mid-market M&A community. The event took place at the Le Méridien Hotel in the heart of London and was attended by the winners and interested observers. Needless to say, IntraLinks was a winner and was awarded ‘M&A Technology Products Firm of the Year’. Obviously, everyone at IntraLinks was ecstatic about winning this award which is recognition of our contribution to assisting dealmakers across the entire M&A process. As my colleague Matt Porzio noted in a previous blog, it’s even more thrilling that we won the same award in Asia and the Americas too, a clean sweep in 2010 (click here to see the related press release).
Last month I attended the inaugural “Dealmakers of the Year Awards” at Scott’s restaurant in London. The event, hosted by IntraLinks with the support of the Mergermarket Group, celebrated the achievements of M&A practitioners who have excelled in their field during the past 12 months in spite the financial crisis and its dramatic effect on global M&A deal volumes.
Short listing for the event was undertaken independently by mergermarket using the mergermarket.com M&A deals database which tracks transactions where the value is greater than €5m. Financial advisors and lawyers qualified on the basis of advice given on transactions to UK-based corporations, targets, vendors and acquirers. Selection was based on both the total volume and value of deals advised on.