Q3 2025 Software Industry Trends

Q3 2025 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The largest deal in Q3 2025 and year-to-date was PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners’ announced acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA), for $55 billion. EA develops and delivers games, content and online services, including Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Need for Speed™, and various EA SPORTS™ titles.

There were 417 financially sponsored transactions in the 1st 3 Quarters of 2025 with an aggregate value of $153.67 billion, representing 26 percent of the total volume and 47 percent of the total value, respectively.

Q3 2025 KEY TRENDS

Total transaction volume in Q3 of 2025 decreased 4 percent over Q2 of 2025, from 544 to 521.

Total transaction value in Q3 of 2025 more than doubled over Q2 of 2025, from $74.4 billion to $163.5 billion.

MULTIPLES & VALUE TRENDS

The median revenue multiple on a year-over-year basis increased 6 percent from 3.2x to 3.4x.

The median EBITDA multiple on a year-over-year basis decreased slightly, from 15.9x to 15.6x.

TOP TEN DEALS THROUGH Q3 2025

The top ten deals by value have seen four new additions since our half year report. These include the previously mentioned announced acquisition of Electronic Arts by an investor consortium, Palo Alto Networks’ announced acquisition of CyberArk for $24 billion, Thoma Bravo’s announced acquistion of Dayforce Corporation for $13 billion, and Blackstone Group’s announced acquistion of Enverus for $6.5 billion. These four transactions, with an aggregate value of $97.8 billion, represented 29 percent of 1st 3 Quarters 2025 transaction value.