2015 Key Highlights

  • The largest transaction in 2015 was Dell, Inc.’s announced acquisition of EMC Corporation, a provider of cloud computing, data storage and other infrastructure technologies, for $67.48 billion. This was the highest value deal ever recorded in the industry.
  • Strategic acquisitions represented 86 percent of total volume and 78 percent of total value, respectively.

2015 Key Trends

  • Total transaction volume in 2015 increased by nine percent over 2014, from 3,982 to 4,360.
  • As for the industry’s horizontal markets, Online & Mobile had the largest rise in volume with a 12 percent increase.
  • Total transaction value in 2015 improved by 49 percent over 2014, from $230.81 billion to $342.78 billion. Excluding the EMC Corporation deal, aggregate value gained 19 percent.
  • The median revenue multiple declined from 2.3x in 2014 to 2.1x in 2015. The median EBITDA multiple decreased from 11.5x in 2014 to 10.7x in 2015.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 11,997 Information Industry transactions between 2013 and 2015, of which 2,693 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate value to be $553.62 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 9,304 undisclosed transactions to be $177.87 billion, totaling $731.49 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 2.1x revenue and 11.1x EBITDA.

Out of 11,997 deals tracked by Berkery Noyes between 2013 and 2015, transactions valued at $160 million and above garnered a median enterprise value multiple of 3.3x revenue. In contrast, companies with transaction values between $10 million and $20 million captured a median enterprise value multiple of 2.1x revenue.