1ST HALF 2014 KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The most active segment year-to-date was E-Marketing & Search with 336 transactions. This was the first time that E-Marketing & Search deal volume surpassed all of the industry’s other segments throughout the past two and a half years.
  • There were 160 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $17.91 billion, representing 13 percent of the total volume and 28 percent of the total value, respectively.

1ST HALF 2014 KEY TRENDS

  • Total transaction volume in 1st Half 2014 increased by seven percent over 2nd Half 2013, from 1,146 to 1,227.
  • Total transaction value in 1st Half 2014 rose by 57 percent over 2nd Half 2013, from $40.82 billion to $63.97 billion.
  • The median revenue multiple remained constant at 2.3x. The median EBITDA multiple increased from 9.5x in 2nd Half 2013 to 12.5x in 1st Half 2014.
  • The segment with the largest rise in volume in 1st Half 2014 over 2nd Half 2013 was Communications with a 27 percent increase, from 96 to 122 transactions. Two of the segment’s three largest deals were located in the consumer mobile application subsector: Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp for $16 billion and Rakuten Inc.’s acquisition of Viber for $900 million.

M&A Market Overview

Berkery Noyes tracked 5,462 Online & Mobile transactions between 2012 and 1st Half 2014, of which 1,206 disclosed financial terms, and calculated the aggregate transaction value to be $139.72 billion. Based on known transaction values, we project values of 4,256 undisclosed transactions to be $58.91 billion, totaling $198.63 billion worth of transactions tracked over the past two and a half years.

Disclosed median enterprise value multiples for all segments combined in this report during the last 30 months were 2.3x revenue and 11.5x EBITDA.

The most active acquirer by volume in the E-Commerce segment between 2012 and 1st Half 2014, either directly or through a partner or affiliated business, was eBay with eight transactions.