1st Half 2019 Software Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2019 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest deal in 1st Half 2019 was Salesforce’s announced acquisition of Tableau Software, a data visualization and analysis platform, for $15.7 billion in an all-stock transaction. This was the highest value acquisition ever completed by Salesforce.

There were 329 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $46.4 billion, representing 26 percent of the total volume and 49 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2019 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2019 increased by nine percent over 2nd Half 2018, from 1,145 to 1,243.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2019 declined by 35 percent over 2nd Half 2018, from $144.86 billion to $94.69 billion.           

The median revenue multiple decreased from 3.6x in 2nd Half 2018 to 3.3x in 1st Half 2019. The median EBITDA multiple remained nearly constant during this timeframe at 17.8x.

The segment with the largest rise in volume in 1st Half 2019 over 2nd Half 2018 was Business Software with an 18 percent gain, from 132 to 160 transactions. Business Software consists of software designed for general business practices and not specific industry markets.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 5,695 Software transactions between 2017 and 1st Half 2019, of which 1,106 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $342.43 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 4,589 undisclosed transactions to be $116.17 billion, totaling $458.6 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2017 to 1st Half 2019 with enterprise values above $160 million received a median revenue multiple of 5.1x, whereas those in the $20-160 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 3.2x and those in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 2.2x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.8x revenue and 13.5x EBITDA.