2016 Key Highlights

  • The industry’s most active segment in 2016 was SaaS & Cloud with 794 deals. E-Commerce, with 708 deals, solidified its position over E-Marketing & Search as the second most active segment.
  • The largest mobile-based transaction during the year was Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s acquisition of Supercell, the Finnish maker of the “Clash of Clans” game, for $8.6 billion.
  • There were 392 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $28.61 billion, representing 14 percent of the total volume and 16 percent of the total value, respectively.

2016 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2016 saw a one percent uptick over 2015, from 2,844 to 2,874.
  • Total transaction value in 2016 rose by 12 percent over 2015, from $157.99 billion to $177.35 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple moved slightly from 2.2x in 2015 to 2.1x in 2016. The median EBITDA multiple improved from 10.0x in 2015 to 11.3x in 2016.
  • The segment with the largest rise in volume in 2016 over 2015 was E-Commerce with an 11 percent increase, from 635 to 708 transactions.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 8,216 Online & Mobile transactions between 2014 and 2016, of which 1,756 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $346.55 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 6,460 undisclosed transactions to be $120.61 billion, totaling $467.16 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 2.3x revenue and 11.5x EBITDA.

The largest Online & Mobile deal tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2014 and 2016 was Microsoft Corporation’s acquisition of LinkedIn, a business social networking site, for $25.93 billion in 2016.