2014 Key Highlights

  • The industry’s most active market segment in 2014 was SaaS & Cloud with 656 deals, slightly surpassing the E-Marketing & Search segment, which accounted for 637 transactions.
  • The largest transaction in the E-Marketing & Search segment was Publicis Groupe SA’s acquisition of Sapient Corporation for $3.39 billion.
  • There were 320 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $25.13 billion, representing 13 percent of the total volume and 19 percent of the total value, respectively.

2014 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2014 increased by 12 percent over 2013, from 2,207 to 2,472.
  • Total transaction value in 2014 nearly doubled over 2013, from $66.58 billion to $126.74 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple saw an uptick from 2.2x in 2013 to 2.4x in 2014. The median EBITDA multiple moved slightly from 12.6x in 2013 to 12.0x in 2014.
  • The segment with the largest rise in volume in 2014 over 2013 was Communications with a 24 percent increase, from 189 to 234 transactions.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 6,710 Online & Mobile transactions between 2012 and 2014, of which 1,466 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $185.14 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 5,244 undisclosed transactions to be $76.89 billion, totaling $262.03 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past three years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 36 months were 2.3x revenue and 11.7x EBITDA.

Based on value, the largest market segment was E-Commerce with $67.16 worth of transactions.

The largest deal tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2012 and 2014 was Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 for $19.65 billion.