Contact: Brenon Daly
Boosted by a September surge, spending on global tech acquisitions in the just-completed Q3 soared to the highest quarterly total of 2017. In fact, the $119bn worth of tech deals tallied by 451 Research’s M&A KnowledgeBase during the July-September period only slightly trailed the total amount spent during the first six months of 2017. Big prints dominated recent deal flow, with both of this year’s largest transactions coming in September. More broadly, Q3 accounted for six of the 10 biggest deals so far this year.
Spending on tech transactions in September hit its highest monthly level since October 2016, coming in twice as high as the average of the previous eight months of the year, according to the M&A KnowledgeBase. Yet even with that spike, the value of announced deals so far in 2017 has slumped to the lowest level for the opening nine months of any year since 2014. (The just-completed quarter reverses a particularly light Q2, which recorded the lowest quarterly value of transactions in four years.) At this point in the year over the past three years, tech acquirers, on average, had handed out $360bn – a full $100bn more than the roughly $260bn worth of announced spending so far in 2017.
Boosted by a September surge, spending on global tech acquisitions in the just-completed Q3 soared to the highest quarterly total of 2017. In fact, the $119bn worth of tech deals tallied by 451 Research’s M&A KnowledgeBase during the July-September period only slightly trailed the total amount spent during the first six months of 2017. Big prints dominated recent deal flow, with both of this year’s largest transactions coming in September. More broadly, Q3 accounted for six of the 10 biggest deals so far this year
However, focusing on the top end of the market in September, there’s some question about whether the recent momentum for momentous deals will continue through the final quarter of the year. A number of significant prints, including both of Q3’s biggest transactions, appear to be uncharacteristically large purchases done in unusual circumstances. We look at some of the reasons for that – as well as some of the imp lications of this new development – in our full report on Q3 tech M&A, which will be available to 451 Research subscribers later today.
