2021 M&A Review

18 Jan 2021

Remarkably, despite COVID-19 and Brexit, there were 711 UK Tech M&A deals in 2020 and Q4 was up 6% YoY. Valuations climbed too, with some cloud software companies getting 5x revenues. The key is overseas buyers, who accounted for 49% of all UK tech deals – a new record. Low interest rates are crucial. They have created a wave of cheap money, to the delight of global buyers like Accenture, Cognizant and Aptean and UK buyers like ClearCourse, Access and Civica. At the same time, COVID has accelerated digital transformation everywhere, which has also pushed up the valuation of all things digital. In the US, it looks a bit bubbly, with many of the largest US tech deals achieving eye-watering valuations of more than 10x revenue. We have a vaccine, The Donald is off and Brexit is behind us, but low interest rates are the real driver of M&A prospects in The Year of The Ox. Read our Tech M&A Review for sector highlights and hot trends to watch for 2021.

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Q3 2020 UK Technology M&A Snapshot

14 Oct 2020

UK Tech M&A activity in Q3 was up 20% on Q2, with 154 deals announced and is nearly back to normal levels, despite most deals closing digitally. Valuations are rising too with a few as high as 10x revenues. Overseas buyers are key in UK accounting for a record 48% of deals so far in 2020. Notable buyers include: Cognizant, Deloitte, Thomson Reuters, MRI Software, Engie, Aptean, BMC, and of course Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM. PE funded deals are also important, accounting for one in five deals. Its business as usual (nearly).

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2020 Technology M&A Mid Year Review

16 Jul 2020

Unsurprisingly, M&A activity in UK Tech fell in H1 but 124 M&A deals still closed in Q2, despite everyone working from home. Overseas acquirers now account for a record high, 49% of all Tech deals in UK. Notable buyers include: Aptean, MRI Software, Descartes, HelpSystems, Microsoft, Accenture and Keysight. These are very uncertain times, but NASDAQ is hitting new highs and we remain very busy on both funding and exit mandates and have closed 5 deals in lockdown. Despite working from home, it is not far off business as usual for many in the Tech sector.

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2019 Technology M&A Review

28 Jan 2020

The Year of The Pig was a bit of a snorter. UK Tech M&A activity was up 20% to a new record number of deals in 2019, driven by strong interest from both PE backed buy-and-build and overseas buyers. With interest rates looking set to remain 'lower for longer' then we expect the wave of cheap money to again fuel healthy M&A activity in the Tech sector in The Year of The Rat.

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2018 Global Technology M&A Review

17 Jan 2019

Overall volumes may be slightly down but valuations remain high, with Microsoft, Google, Cisco, OpenText, Workday, RELX, SAP, Adobe, IBM, Temenos, Docusign, Salesforce and PayPal all having paid more than 10x revenues for recent acquisitions.

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Speciality Materials - M&A Review and Valuation

04 Oct 2018

Increasing M&A activity by trade acquirers and financial sponsors has created a very favourable environment for sellers across the speciality materials sector. Additionally, carbon composite M&A continues to grow with 5 strong quarters in 2017 and 2018, due to some highly significant industry deals, robust growth rates, substantial value propositions and sustainable margins remained attractive incentives for strategic buyers and financial investors.

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2018 Mid Year M&A Review

19 Jul 2018

Technology M&A deal volumes in the UK were up 12% in the first half as a wave of overseas acquirers continues to drive the market. The bull market shows no sign of slowing down. Some of the exit valuations have been spectacular. It's clearly a great time to own a technology company.

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2017 Global Technology M&A Review

12 Jan 2018

2017 was another excellent year for Technology companies. While the number of M&A deals fell 8% globally, the valuations remained at near record levels and in UK we saw a record number of overseas acquirers, with 41% of deals being cross border. Almost all the drivers that made 2017 another active year in M&A remain in place and so we look forward to the Chinese Year of The Dog with confidence.

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