Q3 2019 Software Industry Trends

Q3 2019 Key Highlights

The industry’s largest transaction in Q3 2019 was Broadcom’s announced acquisition of Symantec’s enterprise security business for $10.7 billion. Of note, Broadcom completed another major industry deal in 2018 with the acquisition of CA Technologies, an IT management software and solutions company, for $18.4 billion.

There were 501 financially sponsored transactions in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2019 with an aggregate value of $61.2 billion, representing 27 percent of the total volume and 46 percent of the total value, respectively.

Q3 2019 Key Trends

Total transaction volume in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2019 increased by 12 percent over the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018, from 1,634 to 1,828.

Total transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2019 declined by six percent over the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018, from $142.3 billion to $133.1 billion. This followed a 38 percent gain in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2018 over the 1st 3 Quarters of 2017.

Multiples & Value Trends

The median revenue multiple on a year-over-year basis rose from 3.0x to 3.5x. The median EBITDA multiple improved from 13.9x to 17.8x during this timeframe.

Top Ten Deals Through Q3 2019

The top ten deals by value have seen four new additions since our half year report, including two that occurred in the security sector. In addition to the previously mentioned Symantec deal, VMware announced its acquisition of Carbon Black, a cloud-native endpoint protection company, for $1.9 billion.

These four transactions, with an aggregate value of $16.9 billion, represented 13 percent of transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2019 and 45 percent of Q3 2019 transaction value.