1st Half 2014 Information Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2014 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• The largest transaction in 1st Half 2014 was Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp for $16 billion. This deal accounted for 14 percent of the industry’s aggregate transaction value year-to-date.
• There were 280 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $33.91 billion, representing 14 percent of the total volume and 29 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2014 KEY TRENDS

• Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2014 rose by four percent over 2nd Half 2013, from 1,923 to 1,998.
• As for the industry’s horizontal markets, Online & Mobile volume increased by seven percent; Software volume improved by six percent; and Media & Marketing volume fell by four percent.
• Total transaction value in 1st Half 2014 increased by 23 percent over 2nd Half 2013, from $94.80 billion to $116.92 billion.
• Both the median revenue and median EBITDA multiple remained nearly constant at 2.0x and 9.3x, respectively. However, median value saw a significant increase during this timeframe.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 9,190 Information Industry transactions between 2012 and 1st Half 2014, of which 2,210 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $324.76 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 6,980 undisclosed transactions to be $106.69 billion, totaling $431.45 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 10.0x EBITDA.

Out of 9,190 transactions tracked by Berkery Noyes in this report, we found that 1,245 financially sponsored transactions accounted for 14 percent of the total transactions, yet they totaled $130.96 billion, representing 30 percent of aggregate transaction value.