NEW YORK – A new study of nearly 1,200 high-tech companies sheds new light on the likely rationale for big, recently announced deals, including Google’s bid to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, AT&T’s offer to acquire T-Mobile USA, and Hewlett-Packard’s potential divestiture of its PC business.

Despite steady growth opportunities in the high-tech industry overall, the study released today by business advisory firm AlixPartners finds that a sizeable gap between “winners and losers” in the industry, coupled with intense competition in maturing sectors, a diminished appetite for investing new equity capital and heavy debt loads, will likely lead to robust M&A activity through 2012.

In a time of violent market swings and economic uncertainty, the high-tech industry, the study finds, weathered the recession with only a modest decline (3%) in revenue in 2009, followed by a jump of 8% in 2010. Through the first quarter this year, revenue rose at a 10% annual clip.

The semiconductor sector, which suffered the worst revenue loss (down 15%) in 2009, topped the overall industry’s rebound, posting 29% revenue growth in 2010.  Software and telecommunications, meanwhile, led industry profitability in 2010, posting EBITDA margins of 33% and 31%, respectively.  Moreover, telecommunications, fueled by growth in mobile, accounted for a staggering $2.1 trillion (43%) of the high-tech industry’s $4.8 trillion in annual revenue, while contributing nearly two-thirds of the industry’s $1 trillion in annual pre-tax cash profits (measured as EBITDA).

“On balance, the high-tech industry emerged from the recession relatively unscathed and is now performing quite well,” said Karl Roberts, managing director at AlixPartners. “However, this industry demands aggressive investment and innovation – and, given intense competition from all corners of the globe, narrow margins for error in execution and high debt loads in many sectors, the gap between winners and losers is growing. As a result, we expect continued, industry-rattling moves and changes, particularly from the strongest players.”

According to the study, top-quartile companies in the industry generated 4.5 times higher EBITDA margins than lower-quartile companies. The top-performing companies also invested four times more in capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue, indicating that the gaps between winners and losers could continue to widen.

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