Q3 2018 Online & Mobile Industry Trends

The largest transaction in Q3 2018 was Adobe’s announced acquisition of Marketo, a cloud platform for B2B marketing engagement, for $4.8 billion.
There were 437 financially sponsored transactions in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 with an aggregate value of $41.2 billion, representing 20 percent of the total volume and 27 percent of the total value, respectively.

Total transaction volume in Q3 2018 increased by nine percent over Q2 2018, from 757 to 827.
Total transaction value in Q3 2018 fell by 44 percent over Q2 2018, from $80.2 to $45 billion. However, overall value nearly tripled in Q2 2018. Aggregate value in Q2 2018 was driven by several major deals, such as Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion.

The median revenue multiple from 2017 through the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 improved by 25 percent, from 2.0x to 2.5x.
The median EBITDA multiple from 2017 through the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 remained almost constant at 11.4x.

The top ten deals by value have seen three new additions since our half year report, two of which were SaaS-based deals. In addition to the previously mentioned Marketo deal, State Street Corporation announced its acquisition of Charles River Systems, a provider of investment management front office tools and solutions, for $2.6 billion.
These three transactions, with an aggregate value of $10.2 billion, represented seven percent of transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 and 23 percent of Q3 2018 transaction value.

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