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Tech aficionados of a certain age will have vivid memories of the original virtual reality boom of the 1990s. The emphasis back then, as far as most people were concerned, was squarely on the entertainment possibilities of this futuristic, sci-fi technology.

Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for technology companies, has advised akquinet enterprise solutions GmbH, a leading provider of SAP cybersecurity & access governance software, on its acquisition by Pathlock backed by New York-based Vertica Capital Partners, a growth-oriented private equity investor with a focus on the software sector.

What do investors expect from the startups they plough money into? Lots of money back, naturally. But in recent years we’ve seen a significant paradigm shift, with those brandishing big bucks increasingly looking to propel companies that yield a positive societal impact as well as financial returns.

Now that we’re in the final quarter of 2022, it’s a perfect moment to pause and assess this year’s tech market trends. This has certainly been a dramatic period, with inflationary pressures, hiked interest rates and geopolitical issues all affecting the global M&A market.

There’s been a quiet revolution in how we can manage our money. Over the past several years, with very little fanfare, fundamental changes to the finance system have allowed customers to give authorised companies direct access to their bank account details. This is known as open banking, and it’s one of the booming subsectors within fintech.

Call it the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, the Big Quit – call it what you will, there’s no denying the radical workforce shifts that have taken place since the pandemic hit.

Hampleton Partners is pleased to announce the appointment of Konstantin Kastius to the position of Managing Director based in Hampleton’s Frankfurt office.

Our latest Autotech & Mobility M&A Report discusses several key factors impacting the market right now, including the tariffs which the EU last year slapped onto electric vehicles being imported from China. Now, with tariffs back in the headlines thanks to a more widescale tax burden being applied by the Trump administration to auto imports to the US, it’s worth pausing to consider the changes afoot in the autotech sector.

The latest Digital Commerce M&A report from Hampleton Partners reveals that deal activity in the sector has grown for the second reporting period in a row. While the pace of activity has, in the words of our Sector Principal Ralph Hübner, “been kept in check by the lingering effects of recent macroeconomic headwinds and the stringent requirements of acquirers less willing to take risks in a volatile market environment”, there are several key trends which indicate the sector will continue towards a more bullish path. One particularly significant trend discussed in the report is the strong interest

The newly published IT & Business Services M&A Report from Hampleton Partners reveals an uptick in deal activity and valuations for the sector, singling out cloud computing as a “significant driver of market growth, with businesses and public sector organisations seeking out cloud migration and digital transformation services to modernize their IT infrastructures and implement mission-critical software”. The significance of cloud migration as a momentum generator has been underscored by recent IT sector studies showing that the percentage of IT infrastructure hosted “on-premises” by businesses