1st Half 2019 Online & Mobile Industry Trends

1ST HALF 2019 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest mobile related deal in 1st Half 2019 was Uber’s announced acquisition of its Middle Eastern rival Careem for $3.1 billion. Uber is acquiring Careem’s mobility, delivery, and payments business across the greater Middle Eastern region.

There were 339 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $36.06 billion, representing 21 percent of the total volume and 46 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2019 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2019 remained nearly constant over 2nd Half 2018, at 1,602.

Total transaction value in 1st Half 2019 decreased by 23 percent over 2nd Half 2018, from $101.75 billion to $78.40 billion.

The median revenue multiple shifted slightly from 2.7x in 2nd Half 2018 to 2.6x in 1st Half 2019. The median EBITDA multiple also moved modestly from 12.2x in 2nd Half 2018 to 11.7x in 1st Half 2019.

The segment with the largest gain in volume in 1st Half 2019 over 2nd Half 2018 was E-Content with a 16 percent rise, from 195 to 227 transactions.   

M&A MARKET OVERVIEW

Berkery Noyes tracked 7,519 Online & Mobile transactions between 2017 and 1st Half 2019, of which 1,455 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $279.89   billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 6,064 undisclosed transactions to be $109.33 billion, totaling $389.22 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 4.5x, whereas those in the $20-80 million range garnered a median revenue multiple of 2.6x and those in the $10-$20 million range had a median revenue multiple of 1.9x.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.2x revenue  and 11.9x EBITDA.