Full Year 2014 Private Equity Industry Trends

2014 Key Highlights

• The most active financial sponsor in 2014 was Vista Equity Partners with 29 transactions. Vista was also responsible for two of the top ten highest value deals during the year: TIBCO Software Inc. for $4.11 billion and Advanced Computer Software Group plc for $1.11 billion.
• Two of the top three highest value private equity deals in 2014 occurred in the Marketing horizontal: Leonard Green & Partners, L.P. and CVC Capital Partners’ acquisition of Advantage Sales and Marketing for $4.2 billion and Berkshire Partners LLC’s acquisition of Catalina for $2.5 billion. Both of these acquired companies serve the consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketplace.

2014 Key Trends

• Total transaction volume in 2014 increased by 22 percent over 2013, from 454 to 554.
• Total transaction value in 2014 rose by 20 percent over 2013, from $42.94 billion to $51.50 billion.
• The median revenue multiple remained constant at 2.1x. The median EBITDA multiple improved from 12.0x in 2013 to 13.7x in 2014.
• In terms of secondary buyouts, or transactions completed between private equity firms, deal volume in 2014 increased by 39 percent over 2013. This marked a return to its 2012 level.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 1,519 private equity transactions in the Information Industry between 2012 and 2014, of which 341 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $109.40 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 1,178 undisclosed transactions to be $27.88 billion, totaling $137.28 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 2.1x revenue and 10.9x EBITDA.