Q3 2021 Information Industry Trends

Q3 2021 Key Highlights

Strategic acquisitions represented 75 percent of total volume and 55 percent of total value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2021.

Seven of the industry’s top ten largest transactions year-to-date were completed by strategic acquirers.

Q3 2021 Key Trends

Total transaction volume in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2021 increased by 12 percent over the 1st 3 Quarters of 2020, from 2,953 to 3,309.

As for the industry’s horizontal markets on a year-over-year basis, Software volume gained 33 percent; Online & Mobile volume improved 22 percent; and Media & Marketing volume declined 15 percent.

SaaS & Cloud volume saw a 43 percent rise on a year-over-year basis, from 747 to 1,070 transactions.

Total transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2021 more than doubled over the 1st 3 Quarters of 2020, from $193.9 billion to $396.3 billion.

Multiples & Value Trends

The median revenue multiple on a year-over-year basis rose by 60 percent, from 2.5x to 4.0x.

The median EBITDA multiple on a year-over-year basis improved by 18 percent, from 12.5x to 14.7x.

Top Ten Deals Through Q3 2021

The top ten deals by value have seen two new additions since our half year report: Intuit’s announced acquisition of MailChimp, a marketing automation platform best known for its email marketing solutions, for $12 billion.; and a consortium led by Nordic Capital and Insight Venture Partners’ announced acquisition of Inovalon, a provider of cloud-based platforms supporting data-driven healthcare, for $7.3 billion

These two transactions, with an aggregate value of $19.3 billion, represented five percent of transaction value in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2021 and 15 percent of Q3 2021 transaction value.