1st Half 2023 Software Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2023 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest transaction in 1st Half 2023 was Nasdaq’s announced acquisition of Adenza, who enable financial institutions to consolidate and streamline their operations with front-to-back solutions, for $10.50 billion.

Five of the top ten highest value deals year-to-date were completed by private equity firms.

There were 263 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $26.08 billion, representing 25 percent of the total volume and 36 percent of the total value.

1ST HALF 2023 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2023 declined by 3.5 percent over 2nd Half 2022, from 1,103 to 1064.

In terms of acquirer type, strategic volume declined 3.83 percent on a half year basis, from 834 to 802. Private equity volume fell 2.23 percent, from 269 to 263.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2023 declined 25 percent over 2nd Half 2022, from $96.9 billion to $72.5 billion.

Th e median revenue multiple increased slightly from 3.6x in 2nd Half 2022 to 3.7x in 1st Half 2023. After dropping from 16.7x in 1st Half 2022 to 15.9x in 2nd Half 2022, the median EBITDA multiple fell to 13.6x in 1st Half 2023.

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 6,394 Software transactions between 2021 and 1st Half 2023, of which 1,145 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $747.84 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 5,249 undisclosed transactions to be $181.72 billion, totaling $929.57 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Transactions from 1st Half 2021 to 1st Half 2023 with enterprise values above $160 million received a median revenue multiple of 7.5x, whereas those in the $10-$20 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.8x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 4.42x revenue and 16.67x EBITDA.