NEW YORK — October 8, 2015 — Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its third quarter 2015 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Financial Technology and Information Industry.

The report analyzes M&A activity for the sector during the first three quarters of 2015 and compares it with data covering 2014. This market includes information and technology companies in Capital Markets, Payments, Banking, Insurance, and other related financial services.

Transaction volume increased nine percent over the past three months. Aggregate deal value more than doubled, from $9.5 billion to $20.9 billion. This was the peak for value throughout the past year-and-a-half on a quarterly basis and was attributable in large part to FIS’ announced acquisition of financial software company SunGard Data Systems for $9.1 billion. In terms of valuations, the median revenue multiple from 2014 through the first three quarters of 2015 improved slightly from 3.0x to 3.2x, while the median EBITDA multiple rose from 13.3x to 15.2x.

M&A activity in the Capital Markets segment increased nine percent over the previous quarter and 58 percent year-to-date when compared to the corresponding timeframe in 2014. Deutsche Börse Group completed the segment’s two largest deals during third quarter 2015 with the acquisition of 360T, a provider of web-based trading technology, for $796 million; and joint ventures STOXX and Indexium, two European-based index groups, from SIX Group for $701 million. Meanwhile, Markit Group was the most active Capital Markets acquirer in the third quarter with three transactions. This consisted of Information Mosaic, a post-trade securities processing company; CoreOne Technologies, a regulatory reporting, index management, data management and prime brokerage services business; and DealHub, which provides trade processing, trading services, and business intelligence solutions to the foreign exchange market.

Other notable Capital Markets related transactions included FactSet Research Systems’ acquisition of Portware, a developer of broker-neutral automated trading solutions, for $265 million; Computer Sciences Corporation’s acquisition of Fixnetix, a provider of outsourced high speed trading, data and IT services, for $113 million; Playtech’s acquisition of Ava Trade, a foreign exchange trading platform, for $105 million; DMA Corporation’s acquisition of Baker Hill Corporation, which offers relationship management, credit-origination and risk management solutions, for $100 million; and Blackrock’s acquisition of FutureAdvisor, an technology-enabled digital wealth management company. “Big data is increasing the demands on trading, modeling, executing, and portfolio management,” said Peter Ognibene, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “The variety of risk profiling and stress testing that financial institutions will be subjected to requires more analytical capabilities.”

The number of deals in the Payments segment underwent a 24 percent quarter-to-quarter increase. The segment’s largest transaction in third quarter 2015 was PayPal’s acquisition of Xoom Corporation, a digital money transfer provider, for $788 million. The followed PayPal’s acquisition of mobile wallet platform Paydiant for $280 million in the first quarter. In addition, some acquirers have been looking to strengthen their security solutions with the October 2015 deadline for U.S. adoption of the Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) standards.

As for other sectors covered in the report, there was an 18 percent year-over year volume increase in the Insurance segment, from 39 to 46 deals. The segment’s largest transaction in third quarter 2015 was Vista Equity Partners’ announced acquisition of Solera Holdings for $5.8 billion. Solera provides risk and asset management software and services to the automotive and property marketplace, which includes the property and casualty (P&C) insurance sector.

There was also a 16 percent year-over-year volume increase in the Banking segment, from 44 to 51 transactions. Notable segment deals during third quarter 2015 included Envestnet’s acquisition of Yodlee, a financial data aggregator and provider of online financial tools, for $590 million; and SS&C’s acquisition of Primatics Financial, an accounting, forecasting, regulatory reporting, reserving and stress testing solutions company, for $122 million. SS&C completed a major deal earlier in the year as well with the acquisition of Advent Software, a provider of portfolio management and accounting systems software, for $2.6 billion.

“Banks and credit unions are encountering a new regulatory framework, in which improved technology and automated solutions are increasingly necessary to maintain compliance,” stated John Guzzo, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “Regulations are having a noticeable impact on electronic record keeping, social media monitoring, and oversight of traditional marketing practices. The greater focus on enforcement is encouraging financial institutions to become more proactive in meeting regulatory mandates.”

A copy of the FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR THIRD QUARTER 2015 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.