Q3 2018 Information Industry Trends

Strategic acquisitions represented 80 percent of the industry’s total volume and 72 percent of total value in Q3 2018, respectively.
The highest value sponsored transaction in Q3 2018 was the announced acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet by an investment consortium that includes Thomas H. Lee Partners and CC Capital, for $6.6 billion. Dun & Bradstreet provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses.

Total transaction volume in Q3 2018 declined by four percent over Q2 2018, from 1,147 to 1,194.
As for the industry’s horizontal markets on a year-over year basis, Online & Mobile volume rose by nine percent; Media & Marketing volume stayed about the same; and Software volume decreased by five percent.
Total transaction value in Q3 2018 fell by 21 percent over Q2 2018, from $110.8 billion to $88 billion. This followed a 78 percent rise in the preceding quarter.

The median revenue multiple from 2017 through the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 increased from 2.0x to 2.4x. The median EBITDA multiple during this timeframe moved upward slightly from 10.7x to 11.4x.

The top ten deals by value have seen two new additions since our half year report, including one in the Software horizontal: Broadcom’s announced acquisition of CA Technologies, a provider of information technology (IT) management software and solutions, for $18.4 billion.
These two transactions, with an aggregate value of $25 billion, represented ten percent of transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 and 28 percent of Q3 2018 transaction value.

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