Mergermarket has released its third quarter (Q3) 2014 Global M&A roundup report for the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Sector.
A few key findings include:
- Global TMT M&A saw transactions worth US$ 494.8bn during the three first quarters of 2014. The value represents a strong 20.4% increase compared to the same period last year, and marks the highest TMT value on Mergermarket record (since 2001) for a Q1 to Q3 period. After 2013’s resurgence making the TMT sector the most active, in 2014 the deal value is just 2.1% away from matching the annual 2013 total.
- In terms of deal count, TMT targets have attracted the most deals during any Q1-Q3 period on record. The 1,934 M&A deals so far this year represents 290 more transactions than during the same period last year (1,644 deals).
- Telecommunications M&A has been the dominant sub-sector targeted with US$ 264.1m worth of assets acquired in 2014 so far, representing 53.3% of the total TMT value. Telco hosted the two largest global M&A transactions: the US$68.5bn acquisition of Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) by Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and the US$ 65.5bn purchase of DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T).
Global M&A Roundup: Data analysis
Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) M&A saw transactions worth US$ 494.8bn during the three first quarters of 2014. The value represents a strong 20.4% increase compared to the same period last year, and marks the highest TMT value on Mergermarket record (since 2001) for a Q1 to Q3 period. After 2013’s resurgence making the TMT sector the most active, in 2014 the deal value is just 2.1% away from matching the annual 2013 total.
In terms of deal count, TMT targets have attracted the most deals during any Q1-Q3 period on record. The 1,934 M&A deals so far this year represents 290 more transactions than during the same period last year (1,644 deals). TMT has been a solid deal driver for Global M&A value this year – it is the leading sector by value with a market share of 19.8% of total global M&A value, and it is also the second most active sector by deal count, just behind Industrials & Chemicals’ 2,166 M&A transactions.
As other sectors like Pharma, Medical & Biotech continue to see large-cap transactions announced throughout this year, TMT activity saw a decline during the summer months. Q3 2014’s 579 deals worth US$ 112.5bn saw the least deals announced since the beginning of 2013 and the value was the third lowest since the same time. Deal value dropped over 40% compared to Q2 2014 (757 deals worth US$ 201.7bn) and Q3 2013 (603 deals worth US$ 238.2bn), down 44.2% and 52.8% respectively.
Telecommunications M&A has been the dominant sub-sector targeted with US$ 264.1m worth of assets acquired in 2014 so far, representing 53.3% of the total TMT value. Telco hosted the two largest global M&A transactions: the US$ 68.5bn acquisition of Time Warner by Comcast and the US$ 65.5bn purchase of DIRECTTV by AT&T. Along with these deals, Europe’s consolidation in the sector continued and helped the sector to see its value so far already surpass the whole of 2013 by 3.7% – Europe’s Telecommunications value increased 18.5% to US$ 78.4bn during Q1-Q3 2014 from US$ 66.2bn in the same period last year.
All three of the main regions have seen a higher deal count and value in the technology sector which was also the most active sub-sector based on the number of announcements. Asia-Pacific has already seen more deals and a higher deal value than the whole of 2013 with 295 deals valued at US$ 36.9bn, up from 246 deals worth US$ 36.6bn.
Sector share in global activity
Domestic purchases of US-based technology companies have reached post-crisis high with US$ 98.1bn-worth of deals exceeding every annual total since 2006. Inbound investors also picked up a slice with almost a quarter of this activity being inbound (US$ 22.3bn), the highest share since 2007. The lion’s share of total TMT transactions occurred in the US (US$ 269bn), which gathered 54.4 % of the Global TMT M&A value.
See the full report here.
