2016 Key Highlights

  • Each of the Information Industry’s top three largest deals in 2016 occurred in the Media & Marketing horizontal. These three transactions, with a combined value of $153.9 billion, accounted for slightly more than one-third of the industry’s aggregate value during the year.
  • Strategic acquisitions represented 86 percent of total volume and 83 percent of total value, respectively.

2016 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2016 remained about constant over 2015, from 4,434 to 4,405.
  • As for notable market segments, E-Commerce volume in the Online & Mobile horizontal increased by 11 percent; Consumer Software volume in the Software horizontal improved by four percent; and Entertainment Content volume in the Media & Marketing horizontal rose by four percent.
  • Total transaction value in 2016 improved by 27 percent over 2015, from $340.44 billion to $433.89 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple from 2015 to 2016 stayed the same at 2.1x. The median EBITDA multiple moved slightly, from 10.9x in 2015 to 11.3x in 2016.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 12,825 Information Industry transactions between 2014 and 2016, of which 2,780 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $798.56 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 10,045 undisclosed transactions to be $208.47 billion, totaling $1.01 trillion 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 2.1x revenue and 11.2x EBITDA.

Out of 12,825 deals tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2014 and 2016, transactions valued at $160 million and above garnered a median enterprise value multiple of 3.5x revenue. In contrast, companies with transaction values between $10 million and $20 million captured a median enterprise value multiple of 2.0x revenue.