2015 Key Highlights

  • The most active acquirer in 2015, either directly or through an affiliated business, was Vista Equity Partners with six transactions: International Document Services, Inc., Coretrac, Inc., Solera Holdings, Inc., Eagleview Technology Corporation, AutoStar Solutions and Cougar Software. The largest of these was the announced acquisition of Solera Holdings in the property and casualty (P&C) sector for $6.25 billion.
  • There were 83 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $11.79 billion, representing 19 percent of the total volume and 18 percent of the total value, respectively.

2015 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2015 increased by 14 percent over 2014, from 376 to 427.
  • Total transaction value in 2015 more than doubled over 2014, from $27.81 billion to $63.78 billion.
  • There were seven transactions above the $2 billion threshold in 2015, compared to two in 2014.
  • The median revenue multiple saw an uptick from 3.0x in 2014 to 3.2x in 2015. The median EBITDA multiple declined from 13.3x in 2014 to 10.5x in 2015.
  • The segment with the largest rise in volume in 2015 over 2014 was Capital Markets with a 42 percent increase, from 106 to 150 transactions. The Banking segment was close behind with a 39 percent gain, from 62 to 86 transactions.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,149 Financial Technology and Information transactions between 2013 and 2015, of which 300 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $98.93 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 849 undisclosed transactions to be $19.16 billion, totaling $118.09 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 36 months were 3.0x revenue and 11.9x EBITDA.