GLOBAL TECH

M&A REPORT 2021

• Luminary Software Predictions
• Top 10 Disruptive Tech Trends
• Leading Global Strategic Buyers
• Dominant Private Equity Firms
• Valuations - 29 Market Sectors

www.corumgroup.com
2021 – M&A ACCELERATION

2021 will be a record LUMINARY PANEL

year for privately
PETER COFFEE, SALESFORCE
held sellers due to the
pandemic and record “Of this year’s Top 10 Trends, the one that gets
stock market. me most excited is AI Enablement. We’ll see more
of our everyday tools start to provide powerful
The public stock runup and intuitive help in doing the right things, ranging
raised the value of from photo editing aids to the superior automatic
private companies, assistance we’re getting in tasks like writing
with more buyers than documents or scheduling meetings.”
ever having record cash
– over $5 trillion.
KUNJU MEHTA, MICROSOFT
On the supply side, technology company
owners, feeling vulnerable after the COVID-19 “I’m most excited about the convergence of online/
shock, began rethinking personal priorities. We offline ecommerce. Growth in ecommerce has
all did. Thus, a record number of companies, skyrocketed this past year whether it’s groceries,
many who wouldn’t have considered selling household items, office products or social events.
even a year ago, decided to calibrate the M&A This is more than a temporary boost – it’s a shift
market in 2020. More are coming. in mindset and opens up vast opportunities for
innovation and differentiation in ecommerce
To fuel this frenzy, transaction times have platforms, tools, payments and delivery systems.”
collapsed in the age of Zoom because
everything is done virtually – weekends are not
differentiated from weekdays, with buyers in UTKARSH BAHADUR, SAP
every time zone wanting technology, which is “I see a particular focus blooming in the mining of
still the place to be. business process data. SaaS apps typically provide
The net of these trends is the most active Tech some level of their own business process mining,
M&A market in history, which we at Corum leading to inconsistent experiences for the customer.
expect to continue in 2021. With data so valuable, tech companies have the
unique opportunity to deliver on a standard across all
But, a caution – there are clouds on the horizon.
processes.”
You can’t print so much money – driving values
to new heights – without paying a price.
Thanks to this year’s luminaries from both the JEREMY SEGAL, PROGRESS SOFTWARE
strategic and private equity buyers – Microsoft, “With work from home becoming more of
Salesforce, Progress Software, Abry, Alpine, a reality, technologies that support a better
Accel-KKR, Riverside. Your input made the experience working from home will be even more
2021 annual report the best, ever! commonplace. CEOs will need to consider the
importance of connectivity, productivity and
Be sure to join us regularly for our monthly
security.”
webcasts to stay on top of the trends that will
help you increase your value.

Bruce Milne PRIVATE EQUITY PANEL

CEO and Founder

Data for this report was compiled by Corum Group, the

world’s leading seller of privately held software, Internet, PATRICK EBLE PARK DURRETT JEREMY HOLLAND
IT and related companies. For further information, please
contact us at +1 425 455 8281 or
[email protected].

© 2021 Corum Group Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

2 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

THE BULL MARKET SHRUGS OFF THE PANDEMIC

PUBLIC MARKETS 2020 PUBLIC MARKETS

DAILY PERCENTAGE CHANGE
Public markets ended 2020 at record highs, as technology 60% S&P TECH Dow Jones NASDAQ

enabled life to continue despite the lockdowns, and investors

All-time high
50%

doubled down on the sector. The S&P Tech and Nasdaq 40%

30%
jumped 52% and 44% respectively, despite the global 20%
pandemic. Japanese and Chinese stocks also gained, while 10%

European markets are still feeling the pressure of coronavirus 0%

restrictions. With the exception of the two-month pandemic -10%

adjustment in the spring, this bull market is the longest in -20%

history, starting in 2009. -30%

-40%

CORUM INDEX
Our Corum Index showed an increase in nearly every CORUM INDEX 2019 2020
metric, with roughly 10% increases across total transactions,
Transactions 3627 3979
megadeals, largest megadeal and VC exits. Private equity
platform acquisitions did dip, as strategic acquirers became Market Megadeals 71 79
more aggressive, and bolt-ons picked up the PE slack. Largest Deal $35B $39B
The value across the 79 megadeals hit a record $371B. In the PE Platform Deals 492 396
largest megadeal, IHS Markit was acquired for nearly $40B Pipeline
at over 10x revenue by S&P Global, combining two of Wall VC-Backed Exits 732 822
Street’s biggest data providers. The Horizontal sector led in Cross-Border Deals 38% 37%
total megadeal value at over $100B, while Vertical was highest
in volume with 19 deals, and Consumer was most improved
Attributes Startup Acquisitions 14% 19%

across both metrics. Average Life of Target 17 yrs 17 yrs

CORUM TOP 10 Technology companies considering an exit help them continue that disruptive success.
cannot ignore the disruptive technologies
DISRUPTIVE changing lives and transforming markets.
Each year, Corum composes a list of the
key trends driving Tech M&A, drawn from
TECHNOLOGY Even the largest firms must adapt to these transactions in every sector, spanning
TRENDS 2021 trends or fall behind. No company has hundreds of events, global reports and
the foresight to always lead the innovation information from thousands of buyer
curve, so the most successful acquire the conversations. 2021 has produced a
pioneering companies with the expertise to particularly instructive set, described below.
F U N DA M E N TA L

AI ACTIONABLE COMPOSITE REMOTE LOW-CODE

ENABLEMENT ANALYTICS COMMERCE TRUST EVERYWHERE
DATA AND FEEDBACK BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE THE ONLINE/OFFLINE ENABLING AND SECURING RAPID DEVELOPMENT
TURN AI/ML INTO & DATA SCIENCE DRIVING CONVERGENCE “EVERYTHING-FROM- EMPOWERING NEW
REAL-WORLD VALUE BETTER DECISIONS ARRIVED EARLY ANYWHERE” SECTORS
FUNCTIONAL

FOCUSED HEALTHTECH SMART REGTECH BLUE COLLAR

IT SERVICES CONTINUUM LOGISTICS SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
TARGETED DIGITAL CONNECTIVE TECH MOVING THINGS & SOLVING COMPLEX EVERY WORKER IS A
TRANSFORMATION AND COORDINATING PEOPLE AT A CRITICAL COMPLIANCE KNOWLEDGE WORKER
MANAGED SERVICES SYSTEMS & CARE LEVEL OF EFFICIENCY PROBLEMS WITH TECH

GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 3

TOP STRATEGIC AND FINANCIAL ACQUIRERS

STRATEGIC ACQUIRERS ACTIVE IN COMPETITIVE MARKET

Services giant Accenture once again
led our list of top strategic acquirers 33 TOP STRATEGIC ACQUIRERS: 2020
with 33 acquisitions – six more
acquisitions than last year. These deals
were primarily systems integrators, but 22

included cybersecurity and analystics

services firms as well. 13
12
11
New to our top strategic acquirers 10
9 9 9
8

list is Embracer Group and Total

Webhosting Solutions. Nordic gaming
powerhouse Embracer Group took
the second place on our top strategic
acquirers list with 22 acquisitions of
gaming studios globally, with deals in We even saw a megadeal, as SoftBank
2019 2020 Change
Italy, Poland, Argentina and beyond. sold robotics firm Boston Dynamics for
Meanwhile, Total Webhosting $1.1B to Hyundai, marking a major step Total Webhosting 3 12 300%
Solutions took the fourth spot with into consumer robotics. Embracer Group 7 22 214%
12 acquisitions, primarily of other
Outside the traditional strategic- Accenture 23 33 43%
hosting services providers.
financial dichotomy sits the largest
We also welcomed back 2018 leaders Cisco 7 9 29%
overall acquirer Constellation, a
Hexagon with 13 acquisitions and frequent guest at Corum-sponsored Hexagon 11 14 27%
Deloitte with nine. Most of last year’s events. It stayed true to its aggressive
leaders dropped off the list, with buy-and-hold accumulation strategy, Dell 10 7 -30%
Amazon dropping more than 82%. acquiring a record of 82 companies J2 Global 12 6 -50%
Acquisitions of software and across a variety of verticals. Corum
Dentsu 11 4 -64%
technology firms by traditional, non- has sold many companies to this giant
tech buyers slowed down somewhat holding company including most Amazon 11 2 -82%
in the beginning 2020 due to the recently Minemax to its Vela Software Broadridge 10 1 -90%
pandemic but recovered by year end. subsidiary.

PRIVATE EQUITY LEADERS

The top private equity buyers’ ranking saw a shake-up in 2020, TA Associates and Thoma Bravo moved into the second and
as HgCapital accelerated its bolt-on strategy to triple its deal third positions with 53 and 46 deals, respectively, followed by
count and jump to first place with 64 deals – 90% of those long-standing leader Vista Equity with 42 deals. Note that each
being additions to its broad portfolio of platform companies. of these four PE firms bought more than Accenture, the top
Roughly a third of those deals were bolt-ons to Visma, a strategic acquirer.
multi-billion dollar enterprise software company HG also Bolt-on deals continued to outnumber platform deals by a
recapitalized in 2020. considerable margin (4:1), though slightly lower than that of
the previous year (5:1), as the pandemic forced many
to recalibrate their strategies.
59 TOP PRIVATE EQUITY ACQUIRERS: 2020
Platform Bolt-on In large part, PE investors used bolt-ons to increase
43
resilience and stability through the COVID-19 crisis.
36
They saw the potential of new synergies produced by
36
these tuck-ins. And with more than $1.5T available in
ready cash, private equity investors will continue to
19
17
18 15
invest heavily in tech in 2021, with bolt-on deals as a
priority. PE acquisitions will continue to fuel the most
17 16

active Tech M&A market in history.

10 10 10
8 8
5 6 5 5 6

HgCapital TA Associates Thoma Bravo Vista Equity Providence Equity Partners Accel-KKR Francisco Partners EQT GI Partners Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

4 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

MARKET VALUATIONS

Horizontal Vertical Infrastructure Consumer Internet IT Services

Three-year value trends in Horizontal

Corum’s six tech markets highlight Vertical
Infrastructure and IT servicesInfrastructure
were less affected than other
the dramatic impact of the pandemic
Consumer on public technology sectors,
Internet as both sectors saw winners and losers as the pandemic
IT Services
company valuations, with all software-based sectors seeing made off-site technology systems and projects less relevant but
sharp increases, most notably Horizontal’s skyrocketing drove demand for remote tools and workers. Even with this
EBITDA metrics. That sector held its lead, with Sales double-edged sword, Infrastructure multiples ended the year at
multiples remaining closely correlated with the Vertical sector. a three-year high. Entrepreneurs watching the booming public
The pandemic also enabled both the Consumer and Internet multiples with an eye on their own company’s value should
sectors to reverse slow, long-term declines, bringing multiples expect some rationalization and consider running a process in
comparable to enterprise software for the first time in years, today’s advantageous environment.
with sales multiples in the Internet sector reaching their highest
levels since 2015.

PRIMARY RESEARCH

YASMIN KHODAMORADI VALERIYA CHUMACHENKO ARTEM MAMAIEV

DIR., VALUATION SERVICES SR. BUS. ANALYST SR. BUS. ANALYST

ANNA LEBEDIEVA OLHA RUMIANTSEVA TZVI KILOV

SR. ANALYST ANALYST WRITER
GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 5
HORIZONTAL

EV/EBITDA EV/S
Human Resources
35.00 x 6.50 x
EV/S 7.15 x
30.00 x
6.00 x
EV/EBITDA 25.26 x
5.50 x Cornerstone / Workday
25.00 x
5.00 x
SCM
EV/S 11.48 x
4.50 x
20.00 x
EV/EBITDA 54.58 x
4.00 x
AspenTech / Descartes
15.00 x

Payments
3.50 x

10.00 x
Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20
3.00 x EV/S 5.84 x
EV/EBITDA 23.60 x 24.66 x 23.38 x 19.02 x 20.76 x 22.55 x 23.20 x 23.28 x 26.87 x 27.16 x 27.02 x 33.12 x 34.44 x
EV/S 5.61 x 5.49 x 4.89 x 4.20 x 4.59 x 5.12 x 5.16 x 5.44 x 5.95 x 5.60 x 5.67 x 6.03 x 6.32 x EV/EBITDA 37.26 x
PayPal / Square

Business Intelligence Marketing ERP Other

EV/S 8.29 x EV/S 5.21 x EV/S 6.20 x EV/S 6.04 x
EV/EBITDA 38.87 x EV/EBITDA 25.79 x EV/EBITDA 25.35 x EV/EBITDA 28.35 x
MicroStrategy / NICE HubSpot / Alliance Data Oracle / SAP OpenText / Nuance

Valuations in the Horizontal sector finished the year with consumer intelligence and benchmarking firm Sense360 and
peaks in sales and EBITDA multiples. Save for Marketing, all customer service automation SaaS Stella Connect.
subsectors saw increased multiples, with SCM leading in both
Cross-border marketing technology deals were common in 2020,
sales and EBITDA metrics.
as French location intelligence startup Teemo was acquired by
There were a string of deals in the collaboration space, Singapore-based Near. Omnichannel engagement platform
headlined by the megadeal acquisition of Slack for nearly $30B Emarsys was acquired by SAP, and Corum client ByDesign
by Salesforce. Technologies, a direct selling tools developer, was bought by
MLM software firm Retail Success.
The Smart Logistics trend drove deals in the SCM subsector.
Automated multi-carrier shipping solutions provider Canadian companies took center stage in the regtech market,
ProcessWeaver was picked up by digital supply chain network where British Columbia-based compliance automation firm
Elemica. Corum client Allocation Network, a strategic sourcing ehsAI was pocketed by EHSQ management software Intelex.
and supplier management specialist based in Germany, was Alberta-based Aware360, another Corum client, sold its Central
acquired by cloud-based enterprise software developer QAD. Asset Management System to fleet tracking solutions provider
Titan GPS.

SOLD TO The Payments subsector also attracted strong interest, with

Italian payments group Nexi spending more than $7B on its
Nordic rival Nets. CPS Payment Services, a B2B payments and
High interest continued with enterprise analytics companies. AI- accounts payable automation company, was acquired for $78M
powered marketing intelligence company Signals Analytics was by integrated payment solutions provider Repay.
bought by digital ad platform Kenshoo. Business intelligence
and enterprise reporting pioneer IBI was scooped up by its peer
TIBCO to expand its enterprise reach. SOLD TO

In customer analytics, deal activity was highlighted by the

acquisition of data platform Segment for $3.2B by Twilio.
In document management, virtual data room Ansarada was
Zoominfo rolled up AI-based analytics SaaS EverString and
purchased for $84M by transaction and deal management SaaS
buyer intent data service Clickagy. Customer experience
TDY. In a $715M deal, contract lifecycle management specialist
company Medallia paid a combined $144M for behavioral

6 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

TOP DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Conga was bought by Thoma Bravo to merge it with quote-to- Videoconferencing, another must-have during the pandemic,
cash solutions provider Apttus. also drove deal activity. Conferencing SaaS platform BlueJeans
was bought for $400M by Verizon to bolster its video strategy
Deals in the virtual events space flourished as the pandemic
and leverage its burgeoning 5G platform.
suspended in-person gatherings. BrightTALK, a marketing
platform for webinars and digital events, was acquired for
$150M by B2B martech firm TechTarget. Virtual and hybrid SOLD TO
event management software company High Attendance was
bought by Seattle-based event marketing startup Banzai.

AI ENABLEMENT
Artificial Intelligence continues to underlie and enable Software’s megadeal for AI-enabled SCM optimization
many other trends we’ve seen globally. Companies software maker Llamasoft and Zebra Technology’s $575M
empowering customers through B2B SaaS AI see acquisition of AI-enabled workforce management platform
some of the highest demand in Tech M&A, as do those for retail Reflexis. Similar deals abound at all sizes and in all
companies with the data and feedback loops enabling AI. markets – AI is leaving no industry untouched. Buyers from
Corum’s client Fing, acquired by Lansweeper, is a perfect outside of tech have increased over the last five years, with
example. Fing leverages AI against data from its millions of healthcare in particular exploding – no surprise – in 2020.
users into a precise device recognition engine, enhancing Looking ahead, demand for those feedback loops and
Lansweeper’s network discovery capabilities in a powerful datasets will continue, along with applications targeted
combination of data, AI and application. directly to business challenges through methods that depend
We see this sort of deal across sectors, including Coupa on AI well trained with proprietary data.

ACTIONABLE ANALYTICS
Before AI became mainstream, analytics of various on Loom Systems, whose log monitoring analytics enable
kinds were similar drivers of technology value – and IT departments to identify problems proactively. Corum
still are, particularly when directly enabling better client Altvia, acquired by Bow River Capital in July, provides
decision making in real time. private equity firms and other investors the insights needed
to make their own M&A decisions. This trend extends to
Often empowered by AI, IoT and other advanced
companies with access to sufficient customer data to offer
technologies, and undergirded by structured “data fabrics”
benchmarking analytics to those customers, like in Medallia’s
for scaling and resilience, the analytic tools now in demand
acquisition of consumer intelligence platform Sense360 at a
address business performance where time and competition
valuation of nearly 15x revenue.
are key factors. “Data-driven insight” drove TIBCO’s
acquisition of Information Builders for nearly $1B, but the Acquirers will continue to see embedding decision support
trend drove deals at every scale. ServiceNow spent $58M and tailored analytics into purpose-built tools and platforms
as safe bets in the long term.

SMART LOGISTICS
The upending of supply chains followed by a evidenced by the acquisition of Corum client Allocation
drastically different demand flow tested technology Network by QAD.
up and down the supply chain in 2020. As the A diverse set of global buyers is racing to acquire and apply
implications play out over the coming months, we’ll this technology in a $10T industry climbing to $16T by
continue seeing significant M&A among companies that 2026. We’ll continue to see demand for data-driven software
help the physical world compete with the speed of digital. platforms automating the management of shipping and
The Smart Logistics trend drove megadeals like Coupa storage, transport systems, supply chains, IoT sensors and
Software/Lllamasoft deal, while Epicor and E2Open were more. This is an area where blockchain applications could
both acquired by Private Equity – at $4.7B and nearly 6x drive interest, and given the massive volume of data that
revenue and $2B and over 8x revenue, respectively. Sourcing logistics represents, there’s also significant need for robust
and supplier management tools are also seeing interest, as analytics and AI.

GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 7

VERTICAL
Energy &
EV/EBITDA EV/S

26.00 x 6.50 x
Environment
EV/S 3.08 x
24.00 x
6.00 x
EV/EBITDA 26.08 x
22.00 x
5.50 x
Itron / Xylem
20.00 x

18.00 x
5.00 x
Real Estate
4.50 x EV/S 8.06 x
16.00 x

4.00 x
EV/EBITDA 30.83 x
14.00 x
CoreLogic / Zillow
3.50 x
12.00 x

Automotive
10.00 x 3.00 x

EV/EBITDA
Dec-19
22.94 x
Jan-20
23.17 x
Feb-20
21.09 x
Mar-20
19.03 x
Apr-20
19.97 x
May-20
20.25 x
Jun-20
21.91 x
Jul-20
22.48 x
Aug-20
24.01 x
Sep-20
23.22 x
Oct-20
22.83 x
Nov-20
24.78 x
Dec-20
25.90 x EV/S 5.29 x
EV/S 5.20 x 5.40 x 4.41 x 3.57 x 3.96 x 4.08 x 4.66 x 4.67 x 5.06 x 4.94 x 4.87 x 5.42 x 6.22 x

EV/EBITDA 28.33 x
CDK Global / BitAuto

A/E/C Government Healthcare Financial Services Other

EV/S 11.64 x EV/S 1.78 x EV/S 3.35 x EV/S 6.94 x EV/S 4.92 x
EV/EBITDA 53.98 x EV/EBITDA 14.36 x EV/EBITDA 20.98 x EV/EBITDA 23.77 x EV/EBITDA 27.04 x
Autodesk / Synopsys Raytheon / Tyler Tech. Cerner / Allscripts Broadridge / Fiserv Amadeus / Sabre

Multiples in the Vertical sector grew to record highs with a small and 3x revenue to CompuGroup Medical, strengthening its
dip in Q3. The Real Estate subsector joined A/E/C as a top position in the European market.
value leader, while multiples in Healthcare and Government
remained stable.
SOLD TO
In Real Estate, RealPage was purchased for $10.2B at 9.4x
revenue by Thoma Bravo, and Homesnap was bought for
$250M by CoStar to gain a foothold in residential sales, where
it will go head-to-head with Zillow and Realtor.com. Corum In telehealth, InTouch Health was acquired for $600M at 7.5x
client Modus, a home-closing tech company, was acquired revenue by Teladoc to expand its presence in hospitals and
by real estate tech giant Compass in its quest to digitize the retail pharmacies. Canadian virtual care platform INSIG was
title and escrow process, and Apex Software was bought by bought for $18M by EMR company WELL Health to boost
Ilookabout to strengthen its property tax assesment solutions. its virtual care offering, and healthcare navigation platform
Medical Confidence was purchased for nearly $4M at 2.7x
revenue by CloudMD to broaden its health management
SOLD TO
capabilities.
The pandemic accelerated the demand for edtech – Pluralsight
Two megadeals of note took place in the Healthcare subsector. was acquired for $3.5B at nearly 9x revenue by Vista Equity
One was the purchase of healthcare cost containment firm HMS Partners. In the K-12 market, Certica was pocketed by
for $3.3B at 5.3x revenue by Veritas Capital-backed Medicaid Thoma Bravo-owned Instructure, maker of the popular
management solutions provider Gainwell Technologies to Canvas learning management system. Thoma Bravo made
strengthen its data-driven analytics solutions. In another another bolt-on acquisition through its school administration
megadeal, MedTech and pharma quality management software SaaS Frontline Education, grabbing K-12 software provider
company Sparta Systems was bought for $1.3B by Honeywell SuccessEd to diversify its special education services. In other
to tap into the life sciences market.
In other healthtech deals, Vitalware was acquired for $120M
SOLD TO
by healthcare data analytics firm Health Catalyst, and Cerner
divested its German and Spanish assets for nearly $250M

8 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

TOP DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

edtech deals, Capita sold its Education Software Solutions

business for $529M to PE firm Montagu. SOLD TO

Insuretech companies also saw high value deals. Israeli company

Sapiens International spent nearly $100M to roll up Dutch peer
TIA Technology and property and casualty software maker In fintech, Shareholder Services was acquired by German Börse
Delphi Technology. In addition, cloud insurance software for $2.3B to boost its climate-focused investing offerings, and
solutions provider Majesco was acquired for $729M by Thoma Finicity was scooped up for $825M by Mastercard to strengthen
Bravo. its open-banking platform.

HEALTHTECH CONTINUUM

℞
COVID-19 has brought the demographic, better patient care as a part of LabCorp.
technological and regulatory trends disrupting 2020 also brought the importance of drug discovery and
healthcare to a fine point, paralleling a shift toward clinical trials into stark relief, so expect to see more deals on
systems centered on patient outcomes. Traditional inpatient that end of the continuum, as well as deals for companies
health systems need a unified view across the continuum of serving specific health niches.
care, with telemedicine and patient engagement integration
on the one hand and distributed services in post-acute and Another Corum client shows the breadth of this trend, with
palliative care settings on the other. Carenity, a social network and research platform for patients
with chronic diseases, acquired by BID Equity. Healthtech
Telemedicine has entered the mainstream, creating innovators, like Carenity, enabling consistent, responsible
opportunities like Teladoc’s $18B megadeal for Livongo access to patient data and a holistic vision of care will
Health at nearly 90x revenue. On the care coordination continue to be attractive M&A targets in 2021.
side, Corum client Visiun’s laboratory analytics now enable

BLUE COLLAR SOFTWARE

Serving many of the “essential workers” that kept small markets. For example, in mining Corum sold
the world operating throughout 2020, disruptive MineMax to Vela, and MineRP is being acquired by Epiroc.
technology is transforming skilled labor occupations In small markets, like the quick-lube oil change industry,
across multibillion-dollar industries like construction, where we sold leading software maker Integrated Services
agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and many International to Fullsteam.
others. Blue Collar Software is leapfrogging traditional
on-premise solutions, proceeding directly to AI-enabled, Looking forward, the construction space in particular looks
SaaS-first, mobile-first and IoT-integrated systems. In active, driven by the pandemic boom in that sector. Buyers
practical industries, bottom-line results mean more than like Insightsoftware, Bentley, Thoma Bravo, Procore and
buzzwords, however. Tech with clear productivity gains has ECI – with three deals – all made acquisitions, but tech
the advantage. for narrow, sustainable niches will also continue to be in
demand.
We’re seeing demand for technologies across large and

LOW-CODE EVERYWHERE
The preference buyers have shown in recent years firms like AppSheet, acquired by Google at the beginning
for self-service SaaS with predictable recurring of 2020, will certainly see interest, but we expect to see
revenue has generated huge returns but also missed more deals like FINEOS’ acquisition of Limelight Health
opportunities in the more complex environments carrying for its low-and-no code solutions for the insurance industry.
significant service burdens. Even in Cisco’s $730M acquisition of customer experience
Enter the “low-code revolution” – and even, in some platform IMI Mobile, low-code workflow capabilities were
specifically called out as a deal driver.
cases, no-code – in which tech trends and business needs
have converged to create a unique M&A opportunity. Companies that distill deep wells of expertise into software
Technology can now leverage the best practices built platforms that partner with the boots-on-the-ground
around low-code development to offer highly configurable knowledge and experience of “citizen developers” will see
and customizable solutions in new areas, pleasing both real opportunities in the 2021 M&A market, as will related
customers and potential acquirers. Successful horizontal tech like Robotic Process Automation and Business Rules
Engines.

GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 9

CONSUMER

EV/EBITDA EV/S
Casual Gaming
26.00 x 6.50 x

6.00 x
EV/S 5.02 x
24.00 x

22.00 x
5.50 x EV/EBITDA 32.95 x
20.00 x
5.00 x Glu / Zynga
4.50 x

Core Gaming
18.00 x
4.00 x
16.00 x
3.50 x EV/S 7.15 x
14.00 x

12.00 x
3.00 x
EV/EBITDA 22.52 x
2.50 x

10.00 x
Electronic Arts / Activision
2.00 x

8.00 x 1.50 x
Other
EV/S 6.57 x
6.00 x 1.00 x
Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20
EV/EBITDA 18.52 x 18.39 x 17.70 x 17.35 x 20.96 x 23.19 x 25.23 x 25.73 x 23.02 x 20.04 x 19.47 x 20.97 x 23.96 x

EV/EBITDA 36.57 x
EV/S 3.49 x 3.55 x 3.45 x 3.32 x 3.52 x 4.43 x 5.30 x 5.75 x 5.71 x 5.59 x 5.16 x 5.44 x 6.11 x

Netflix / Spotify

The Consumer market ended the year with strong valuations, Daybreak Game Company. The purchase was made after EG7
as sales multiples hit historic levels. Core gaming saw the bought Corum client Big Blue Bubble.
highest multiples, but much of the M&A activity occurred
in other sectors, like streaming media and podcasting. Cloud-
SOLD TO
based video and podcast editing SaaS provider WeVideo was
bought by Thompson Street Capital Partners; podcasting
pioneer Stitcher was purchased for $265M by SiriusXM; and Megadeals also took place in video streaming, where Warner
website and podcasting network The Ringer was acquired for Media sold its anime-streaming service Crunchyroll for $1.2B
$190M by music streaming giant Spotify. to Sony’s Funimation Global, and video-based social media
platform JOYY divested its live-streaming entertainment
SOLD TO business YY Live for $3.6B to Chinese internet giant Baidu as
it pushes to diversify beyond its core search business.
In betting, Italy-based Lottomatica sold its online sports
Pioneering digital music brand Napster was acquired for $70M betting and gaming machines for $1.2B to Gamenet Group.
by UK-based virtual reality music company MelodyVR Group. Other deals in this space included Esports Entertainment
Audio discovery platform Spkr sold to media company Group acquiring online casino operator Lucky Dino Gaming
Loop Media for $3M. Ad-supported streaming service Tubi for $30M and the sale of iGaming operator Coolbet for $176M
was purchased for $440M by Fox to better compete in the to Internet gaming and casino solutions firm GAN.
streaming wars.

SOLD TO COMPOSITE COMMERCE

2020 was the year lines between online and

The biggest deal in the Consumer sector was Microsoft’s offline commerce collapsed, as COVID-19
purchase of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda made remote sales a matter of survival for every
Softworks, for $7.5B, in the second largest video-game deal business. Years of changes were compressed into just a
few weeks in the spring. The reverberations of this shift
ever. Additionally, British video games maker Codemasters
will be felt for years.
was snapped up for $1.2B at 7.6x revenue by Electronic Arts,
The impact on Tech M&A was as close to immediate
outbidding Take-Two Interactive. Leading acquirer, Embracer
as possible. This included food delivery megadeal
Group, went on a worldwide shopping spree, wrapping up 22 consolidation in the summer, such as Uber’s acquisition of
gaming studios and spending around $446M. Postmates for $2.7B and Just Eat’s acquisition of Grubhub
Other buys in the Gaming subsector saw EG7, a group of for over $7B, but also disruptive retail tech deals like
Walmart’s acquisition of peer-to-peer delivery application
gaming-focused companies, spend $300M for developer

10 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

INTERNET

EV/EBITDA EV/S
Diversified Internet
25.00 x 5.50 x
EV/S 5.04 x
23.00 x 5.00 x

21.00 x
EV/EBITDA 22.46 x
4.50 x

19.00 x
Alphabet / Tencent
4.00 x

17.00 x
3.50 x Ecommerce
15.00 x
3.00 x EV/S 3.21 x
13.00 x

11.00 x
2.50 x EV/EBITDA 51.56 x
9.00 x
2.00 x eBay / JD.com

Social Network
7.00 x 1.50 x

5.00 x 1.00 x

EV/EBITDA
Dec-19
18.75 x
Jan-20
19.31 x
Feb-20
15.94 x
Mar-20
13.67 x
Apr-20
14.67 x
May-20
16.48 x
Jun-20
18.20 x
Jul-20
17.14 x
Aug-20
21.57 x
Sep-20
19.48 x
Oct-20
20.01 x
Nov-20
23.52 x
Dec-20
23.43 x
EV/S 5.19 x
EV/EBITDA 13.11 x
EV/S 3.58 x 3.97 x 3.15 x 2.60 x 3.16 x 3.53 x 3.49 x 3.72 x 4.21 x 3.83 x 4.03 x 4.29 x 5.04 x

Facebook / Mixi

Travel & Leisure

Internet multiples grew steadily despite the pandemic, and the In restaurant reserva- EV/S 10.29 x
beleaguered Travel & Leisure subsector had a notable rebound. tions, Malaysian startup EV/EBITDA 32.13 x
The biggest deal in the Internet space was the acquisition of TABLEAPP was ac- Expedia / Just Eat
online brokerage E*TRADE for $13B at nearly 5x revenue by quired by Taiwan-based
Morgan Stanley in the largest tech acquisition by a Wall Street last-minute booking app
firm since the Global Financial Crisis. FunNow. Vienna-based
The online food delivery space continued to consolidate in restaurant platform Delinski was bought by TripAdvisor’s sub-
2020, as Grubhub was acquired for $7.1B by Just Eat. Non- sidiary LaFourchette, the leading online and mobile reservation
tech buyers were also active here, led by Nestlé, which acquired platform for restaurants in Europe.
healthy meal delivery startup Freshly for almost a billion dollars. In the Travel subsector, air ticket rebooking service Freebird
was acquired by Capital One, marking its move into the travel
market, and TripAdvisor sold Smarter Travel to booking site
SOLD TO Hotjump. In Latin America, travel marketplace Best Day Travel
was purchased for $56.5M by Argentine online travel company
Despegar to continue its expansion into Mexico.
Purchases were also made in grocery delivery, where online
marketplace InstaShop was acquired for $270M by Delivery Hero,
and Indian online milk delivery app DailyNinja was pocketed by SOLD TO

online grocer BigBasket, consolidating its subscription delivery

business.
In the personal finance arena, Credit Karma was purchased
for $7B at 7x revenue by financial software giant Intuit, in its
JoyRun and Lightspeed POS’s acquisition of payments SaaS biggest acquisition to date. Other deals included digital wealth
Shopkeep for $440M – nearly 9x revenue. Beyond food and management company Personal Capital’s acquisition for $825M
retail, Corum client Modus’ platform digitizes the home- at 9.7x revenue by retirement services provider Empower
closing process and was acquired by real estate technology Retirement to offer improved financial wellness tools to its retail
platform Compass.
clients. And PayU paid $200M for Indian credit startup PaySense
2021 will see continued demand for vertical technology to merge it with consumer lending business LazyPay.
tools that digitize complex transactions and enable remote
digital commerce, particularly in spheres where it hasn’t M&A continued in the home services space, as home
been preferred or even possible. Broadly, all tech allowing management startup Setter was acquired by local services
consistent, personalized customer journeys for brands and marketplace Thumbtack, and French home improvement
retailers online and off will retain significant interest. services marketplace NeedHelp was purchased for nearly $12M
by British rival Kingfisher.

GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 11

INFRASTRUCTURE
EV/EBITDA EV/S Security
24.00 x 5.50 x
EV/S 8.36 x
22.00 x 5.00 x
EV/EBITDA 29.30 x
20.00 x 4.50 x
Palo Alto Networks / FireEye
18.00 x 4.00 x

16.00 x 3.50 x
Storage & Hosting

14.00 x 3.00 x
EV/S 3.51 x
12.00 x 2.50 x
EV/EBITDA 40.42 x
10.00 x 2.00 x
NetApp / Box
8.00 x 1.50 x
Other
6.00 x
Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20
1.00 x
EV/S 18.45 x
EV/EBITDA 17.82 x 17.46 x 15.41 x 15.34 x 18.25 x 20.02 x 16.47 x 20.21 x 19.55 x 19.54 x 17.10 x 20.46 x 22.62 x
EV/S 4.34 x 4.01 x 4.14 x 3.49 x 4.52 x 4.54 x 4.52 x 4.37 x 4.42 x 4.33 x 4.07 x 4.37 x 5.26 x EV/EBITDA 17.47 x
Akamai / Appian

Application Lifecycle Endpoint Network Management

EV/S 5.86 x EV/S 5.27 x EV/S 3.63 x
EV/EBITDA 10.34 x EV/EBITDA 23.66 x EV/EBITDA 16.96 x
Atlassian / Progress Citrix / VMware Cisco / Juniper Networks

Infrastructure multiples were the least affected by the pandemic formerly known as Symantec, to expand into the freemium tier.
and remained steady with minor fluctuations throughout the And security incident investigation platform Respond Software
year. Median multiples surpassed 2019, mainly due to the was bought for $186M by security specialist FireEye to add to
strength of the Security and Storage subsectors. its extended detection and response capabilities.
In cybersecurity, Ivanti acquired endpoint security firm
MobileIron, for nearly a billion dollars, as well as access and
SOLD TO
mobile security solutions maker Pulse Secure, to strengthen
and secure IT connections across remote devices and
infrastructure.
The zero trust trend drove deals as well, with Israeli secure
remote access startup Odo Security selling its assets to Check
SOLD TO Point Software Technologies, and Corum client Light Point
Security, a browser isolation tech pioneer, getting picked up
by McAfee, to enhance inbound and outbound protection for
In IoT, Broadcom divested its wireless IoT unit to Synaptics web and cloud traffic into McAfee’s Secure Web Gateway.
for $250M at 3.8x revenue to bolster Synaptics’ position in the
consumer IoT market.
SOLD TO
Elsewhere in Infrastructure, Thoma Bravo acquired Flexera for
$2.9B – its second go-around with this IT asset management
company, which Thoma Bravo had acquired in 2008, and sold
in 2011. Interest in identity management companies remained strong,
as credit report and identity theft monitoring firm IDIQ was
In cybersecurity, AI-based compliance SaaS Viking Cloud was acquired by Corsair Capital. Credit and fraud risk enterprise
acquired by Irish compliance specialist Sysnet Global Solutions solutions developer ID Analytics was bought for $375M
to bolster enterprise security offerings. And attack surface by LexisNexis Risk Solutions to boost fraud and identity
management company Expanse was purchased for $800M by management capabilities.
Palo Alto Networks to scale up its national footprint.
Not to be outdone, the Application Lifecycle Management
Security deals also included anti-malware product companies. subsector saw a megadeal in the acquisition of software
Antivirus provider Avira was sold for $360M to NortonLifeLock, development and quality tools maker Smartbear by Vista

12 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

TOP DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

Equity Partners for a reported $1.8B. Additionally, Rundeck, Labs was bought for a reported $600M by EQT-backed Linux
an enterprise DevOps automation provider, was pocketed for distribution company SUSE to get a better position in the fast-
$100M by digital operations manager PagerDuty, strengthening growing Kubernetes market.
its incident response offering with intelligent machine
automation. And Kubernetes management startup Rancher

SOLD TO

REMOTE TRUST
When remote collaboration tools became vital to-end solutions for cellular communications, including
components of every business overnight, the 5G, acquired by Mavenir. It also includes zero-trust security
security implications quickly came to the fore. From solutions like remote browser isolation pioneer Light Point
“Zoom-bombing” to unemployment fraud, the pandemic Security, which Corum sold to McAfee. Collaboration tools
opened a wide array of opportunities for bad actors to steal themselves were in demand, including Salesforce’s nearly
information, identities, money and more, exploiting both $30B acquisition of Slack.
technical deficiencies and the unfamiliar nature of this new, Anti-fraud tools, identity management, biometrics and
remote world. purpose-built collaboration solutions with features and
The companies that provide, maintain, leverage and secure integrations directly relevant to particular markets are driving
the remote infrastructure have a unique moment of M&A notable value. Companies fulfilling blockchain’s promise of
value. This includes Corum clients Metro Data Center, an “Architecture of Trust” could also see M&A interest in
acquired by DartPoints, and ip.access, a provider of end- the year ahead.

REGTECH SYSTEMS
Technology is, in many cases, mission-critical for efficient TTR’s tax research and automation capabilities for $377M and
and effective compliance with complex regulations, spent $97M for Business Licenses LLC and its compliance and
especially as significant regulatory volatility collides with filing SaaS platform. Regtech trends also drive govtech deals,
drastically altered circumstances relating to the pandemic and such as that of Corum client For the Record, a global leader in
other causes. Those with the technology to help navigate this court audio capture and automated transcription, acquired by
labyrinthine but unavoidable landscape are in a good position. Bison Capital.
This trend drove deals across sectors. Fintech saw the largest The diverse regulatory impacts across jurisdictions and
deals, with Nasdaq paying $2.7B for anti-fraud and money industries make this a particularly fertile ground for M&A, as
laundering automation platform Verafin, and Moody’s spent the acquisition of companies with point solutions and specific
$700M for Regulatory Datacorp and its AML and anti-fraud domain expertise is a part of the ecosystem, with larger players
analytics. Elsewhere, tax compliance specialist Avalara added seeking to add the pieces needed to stay relevant and flexible.

FOCUSED IT SERVICES
Specialization continues to be the key to premium Perceptronics, a specialist in advanced AI technology, took
value in the services space, both through the recurring an investment from Emerald Lake Partners.
revenue provided by managed services firms and Looking forward, we are seeing notable interest in companies
the vital reinvention work around digital transformation. working in emerging tech ecosystems, like Qlik, Atlassian,
Consulting firms, system integrators and other services Snowflake and ServiceNow.
firms applying deep, specific levels of knowledge are driving
high levels of demand. As software companies digitize and automate, they create
a need for ongoing customization, maintenance and
We saw this with Veritas Capital’s creation of health & redevelopment. Therefore, the value of one-off project
human services digital specialist Gainwell Technologies revenue is declining. Deep domain knowledge and long-
from a $5B DXC Technologies spinout – acquired at 3.6x term customer relationships will remain increasingly
revenue. Elsewhere, cross-platform marketing services and important, especially when leveraged into predictable,
analytics provider News America Marketing was acquired recurring managed services revenue.
for $175M by Charlesbank Capital Partners. Corum client

GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021 corumgroup.com 13

IT SERVICES

DEVELOPED MARKETS
EV/EBITDA EV/S

15.00 x 1.60 x

14.00 x

1.40 x
13.00 x

12.00 x
1.20 x

11.00 x

10.00 x 1.00 x

9.00 x

0.80 x
8.00 x

7.00 x
0.60 x

6.00 x

5.00 x 0.40 x
Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20
EV/EBITDA 14.58 x 13.89 x 12.80 x 10.71 x 12.66 x 12.84 x 13.45 x 13.21 x 13.29 x 12.97 x 12.77 x 14.39 x 14.48 x
EV/S 1.53 x 1.52 x 1.32 x 1.01 x 1.11 x 1.27 x 1.31 x 1.41 x 1.43 x 1.44 x 1.24 x 1.41 x 1.43 x

EMERGING MARKETS
EV/EBITDA EV/S

21.00 x 5.00 x

19.00 x
4.50 x

IT Services multiples in developed markets 17.00 x

recovered dramatically in 2020 from the dip

4.00 x

15.00 x

in March, and median sales multiples for 13.00 x

3.50 x

emerging markets reached historic highs. 3.00 x

11.00 x

M&A deals in the IT Services sector were 9.00 x

2.50 x

capped by a megadeal in which global IT 7.00 x

2.00 x

services provider Virtusa was acquired for 5.00 x 1.50 x

$2B by Baring Private Equity Partners.

Dec-19 Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20
EV/EBITDA 17.73 x 18.02 x 16.53 x 13.16 x 14.43 x 14.39 x 15.41 x 18.60 x 18.80 x 19.25 x 17.52 x 19.13 x 20.88 x
EV/S 3.34 x 3.46 x 3.51 x 2.69 x 2.79 x 2.71 x 2.97 x 3.76 x 3.79 x 3.90 x 3.76 x 4.21 x 4.64 x

The year’s top strategic acquirer Accenture

made over three dozen deals across several
key IT Services areas including systems
integration and technology & management
consulting. security needs. Blackstone Group sold its federal division for
Among systems integrators, Microsoft EDI solutions provider $85M to ASGN, an IT and professional services provider to the
Data Masons Software was acquired for $100M by retail cloud government sector.
services provider SPS Commerce to expand its fulfillment In the security area, integrator CodeLynx was acquired by voice,
system automation capabilities. Amazon Connect integrator and video and data solutions provider Mobile Communications
services provider VoiceFoundry was purchased for $48M by America. In Australia, security services provider Intalock
AWS consulting partner TTEC Digital. Technologies was bought for $11M by Spirit Technology.
The drive to AI-enablement also catalyzed M&A deals,
highlighted by the purchase of data management firm TonkaBI
SOLD TO
by insurance services provider STP Group to add to its micro
insurance capabilities. Also, AI-based software engineering firm
Zen3 Group was bought for $42M by global systems integrator
In government services, advanced engineering solutions provider Tech Mahindra to bolster its enterprise application practice and
OMNITEC Solutions was bought for an undisclosed amount capabilities. Corum client Perceptronics Solutions, an innovative
by government IT services provider Gryphon Technologies developer of advanced AI and Machine Learning software took
to enhance its digital transformation engineering for national an investment from Emerald Lake Capital.

SOLD TO SOLD TO

14 corumgroup.com GLOBAL TECH M&A REPORT 2021

SELLING YOUR SOFTWARE, IT OR RELATED TECH COMPANY?

Executed professionally, done right, it leads to fortune. Unfortunately, most owners’ efforts to sell end in failure
due to lack of experience and knowledge. For the most important transaction of your life, it’s imperative to get the
necessary education. Corum is the leading Tech M&A educator in the world – we share the experience gained in
selling more firms than anyone else over the past 36 years. Our experts offer a number of live events designed to
give you the knowledge you need to achieve what we call an Optimal Outcome – maximum price and best structure.

Thinking about selling in the next one to three years? The World Financial Symposiums is an international
Merge Briefing is a 90-minute executive seminar that organization dedicated to educating technology leaders
on the current tech and financial landscape, helping them
provides a current M&A market update (trends, valuations,
build strategies for growth and eventual exit.
etc.), as well as a brief overview of the Tech M&A process: WFS brings together tech CEOs, founders, investors,
“8 Stages to an Optimal Outcome.” strategic & financial buyers and M&A experts through
digital media-webcasts, podcasts and online video series-
and live symposiums in tech cities around
the world, facilitating idea sharing,
global networking and deal flow.

The WFS flagship conference, Growth and Exit Strategies

for Software & IT Companies, is a half-day event held
in New York, London, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Atlanta,
Ready to go to market? During the half-day workshop
Chicago, Toronto and other major tech & financial
Selling Up Selling Out, learn to prepare, position, research, centers. The Tech Market Spotlight webcast series
value, negotiate and execute due diligence for maximum price focuses on opportunities for tech companies in emerging
and optimal structure in an M&A transaction. tech trends, specific sectors and regions.
This is the most attended tech M&A event ever.
To learn more, visit www.WFS.com

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