1ST HALF 2017 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Seven of the Information Industry’s top ten highest value deals in 1st Half 2017 were completed by strategic acquirers. These seven acquisitions combined accounted for 28 percent of the industry’s aggregate value year-to-date.
  • There were 401 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $55.98 billion, representing 17 percent of the total volume and 37 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2017 KEY TRENDS

  • Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2017 increased eight percent over 2nd Half 2016, from 2,141 to 2,317.
  • As for the industry’s three horizontal markets, Software volume improved by 12 percent; Online & Mobile deal volume rose by five percent; and Media & Marketing volume moved upward by three percent.
  • Total transaction value in 1st Half 2017 fell by 51 percent over 2nd Half 2016, from $277.65 billion to $135.75 billion. However, aggregate value declined 14 percent on a year-over-year basis.
  • The median revenue multiple shifted from 2.0x to 1.9x, while the median EBITDA multiple declined slightly from 11.6x to 11.0x.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 11,219 Information Industry transactions between 2015 and 1st Half 2017, of which 2,413 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $738.35 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 8,806 undisclosed transactions to be $174.19 billion, totaling $912.54 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.0x revenue and 11.2x EBITDA.

Out of 11,219 transactions tracked by Berkery Noyes in this report, we found that 1,748 financially sponsored transactions accounted for 16 percent of the total transactions, yet they totaled $225.26 billion, representing 25 percent of aggregate transaction value.