Q1 2017 Online & Mobile Industry Trends

Q1 2017 Online & Mobile Industry Trends Report

Online & Mobile transaction volume increased seven percent over the past three months, from 685 to 735. Deal value declined 49 percent, from $38.9 billion to $19.9 billion. Both aggregate volume and value throughout the past five quarters reached their peak in Q2 2016. Strategic acquirers completed each of the industry’s top ten highest value deals in Q1 2017.

The number of transactions in the mobile application subsector improved ten percent on a quarterly basis, with a total of 116 acquisitions in Q1 2017. Notable gaming deals completed by Chinese acquirers during the quarter included United Luck Consortium’s $1 billion acquisition of Outfit7, a media franchise with various mobile applications, which have received more than 5 billion downloads; and Take-Two Interactive Software’s acquisition of Social Point, a mobile game developer, for $250 million.

Deal activity in the E-Commerce segment remained about constant for the third consecutive quarter. Notable E-Commerce transactions year-to-date included Amazon’s announced acquisition of Souq, a Dubai-based online retailer, for a reported $650 million; Coty’s acquisition of a majority stake in Younique, an online cosmetics retailer and social selling platform, for $600 million; and Priceline’s announced acquisition of Momondo Group, the operator of travel metasearch websites momondo and Cheapflights, for $550 million, which will be rolled into Priceline’s Kayak division.

As for other select industry markets, SaaS & Cloud volume increased 22 percent in Q1 2017. It continued to be the most active Online & Mobile sector, representing almost one-third of the industry’s aggregate volume year-to-date.

E-Marketing & Search volume improved nine percent during the quarter. M&A volume in the Communications segment stayed nearly the same in Q1 2017, which followed a 55 percent rise in Q4 2016.