2013 Key Highlights

  • Five of the top ten highest value deals occurred in the Niche Software segment, which consists of software designed for use in specific industry markets. Four of these five transactions were located in the finance vertical.
  • The most active acquirers in the Infrastructure Software segment during 2013 were EMC Corporation and Intel Corporation with six transactions each.
  • There were 255 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $29.05 billion, representing 16 percent of the total volume and 32 percent of the total value, respectively.

2013 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2013 experienced a two percent uptick over 2012, from 1,561 to 1,598.
  • Total transaction value in 2013 rose by 31 percent over 2012, from $67.23 billion to $88.22 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple increased from 2.1x in 2012 to 2.4x in 2013. The median EBITDA multiple moved slightly from 11.3x in 2012 to 11.5x in 2013.
  • The segment with the largest rise in volume in 2013 over 2012 was Consumer Software with a ten percent increase, from 251 to 276 transactions.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 4,685 Software transactions between 2011 and 2013, of which 1,435 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $188.80 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 3,250 undisclosed transactions to be $48.41 billion, totaling $237.21 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

The most active acquirer in the Business Software segment over the past 36 months, either directly or through an affiliated business, was Oracle with 14 transactions. Three of these deals occurred in 2013, the largest of which was the acquisition of Responsys, a provider of marketing software, for $1.39 billion.

The highest value deal tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2011 and 2013 was HP’s acquisition of Autonomy plc in 2011 for $10.28 billion.