July 13, 2015 ONLINE AND MOBILE DEAL ACTIVITY REMAINS ROBUST, REACHES NEW HEIGHTS IN FIRST HALF 2015

According to Berkery Noyes’ Online and Mobile report for first half 2015, transaction volume increased 12 percent over the past six months. Aggregate value rose nine percent, from $64.55 billion to $70.27 billion. The median revenue multiple decreased from 2.6x to 2.3x, while the median EBITDA multiple declined from 13.7x to 10.3x. The peak for both volume and value over the last 30 months occurred in first half 2015.

The most active segment year-to-date was SaaS & Cloud with 406 transactions, which represented a 16 percent increase compared to second half 2014. This was the segment’s highest level of activity on a half year basis during the past two-and-a-half years. Regarding valuations, SaaS & Cloud deals in first half 2015 received a median revenue multiple of 3.5x.

M&A volume in the E-Commerce segment improved ten percent in first half 2015. Five of the industry’s top ten largest acquisitions year-to-date were also E-Commerce related. As for specific E-Commerce subsectors, notable deals in the online food delivery market included Just Eat’s acquisition of Menulog Group for $687 million; Delivery Hero’s acquisition of Yemeksepeti for $589 million; and Yelp’s acquisition of Eat24 for $134 million.

The number of deals in the consumer application subsector increased 12 percent, from 119 to 133. Meanwhile, one of the largest mobile-based payments transactions in first half 2015 was PayPal’s acquisition of mobile wallet platform Paydiant for $280 million in the B2B subsector. Samsung also completed a mobile payments deal with the acquisition of LoopPay, a digital wallet solution.

“Currently there is no dominant player in the mobile payments space, but giants like Apple, Google and PayPal are vying for control,” said Peter Ognibene, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “It is also important to note that mobile payments alone may not provide a value-added service for consumers. However, companies that can integrate a full range of products with their mobile payments platform provide a compelling reason for both consumers and merchants to adopt the technology.” Ognibene continued, “Another complimentary development in mobile payments landscape, the acceptance of host card emulation (HCE) by MasterCard and Visa, will further facilitate the expansion of mobile payments.”