2019-10-02 Berkery Noyes Releases Software Industry M&A Report For Third Quarter 2019

NEW YORK — October 2, 2019 — Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its third quarter 2019 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Software Industry. The report analyzes M&A activity during the three-month period and compares it with data for the six previous quarters.

According to Berkery Noyes’ latest research, aggregate volume increased 12 percent year-to-date over the first three quarters of 2018. Aggregate value declined by six percent during this timeframe, from $142.3 billion to $133.1 billion. Upon further examination of value, four of the top ten largest deals thus far in 2019 occurred in the third quarter. These four deals, with a combined value of $16.9 billion, represented almost half of aggregate value in third quarter 2019.

In terms of “Niche Software,” which is targeted to specific vertical industries, volume increased seven percent year-to-date over the first three quarters of 2018. Notable deals in the segment’s Finance vertical during the third quarter included Roper Technologies’ announced acquisition of iPipeline, a provider of cloud-based automated processing solutions for the life insurance and financial services sectors, for $1.6 billion; and Black Mountain Systems’ acquisition of AltaReturn, which provides fund accounting, portfolio management, business intelligence, CRM, investor portal and reporting software, for $500 million.

As for notable Niche segment deals in the Healthcare vertical during the quarter, private equity firm EQT and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s (“CPPIB”) announced their acquisition of a majority stake in Waystar, a revenue cycle management (RCM) provider, for $2.7 billion; and Veeva Systems acquired Crossix, a privacy-safe patient data and analytics platform used by pharmaceutical marketers, for $430 million.

M&A activity in the Business segment, which consists of software designed for general business practices and not specific vertical industries, increased 33 percent year-to-date over the first three quarters of 2018. Notable third quarter Business segment deals included Salesforce’s announced acquisition of ClickSoftware, a provider of field service management solutions, for $1.4 billion; Syncsort’s announced acquisition of Pitney Bowes’ location intelligence, data enrichment, customer information management, and customer engagement solutions business, for $700 million; and Cisco’s acquisition of 42hertz, a provider of enterprise solutions including end-to-end CRM, ERP or other customized solutions leveraging data science and artificial intelligence, for an undisclosed sum.

Transaction volume in the Infrastructure segment saw a two percent uptick year-to-date over the first three quarters of 2018. Notable segments deals in third quarter 2019 included Broadcom’s announced acquisition of Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion; and VMware’s acquisition of Carbon Black, which offers cloud endpoint protection solutions, for $1.9 billion.

A copy of the SOFTWARE INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR THIRD QUARTER 2019 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.