Technology, Media & Communications Trend Report Q1 2018
Submitted by MergerMarket/Acuris, a partner of the M&A Leadership Council 

Mergermarket, an Acuris company, has released its Global M&A roundup report for the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) Sector for the first quarter (Q1) of 2018. Take a look at the full report HERE.
 

A few key findings include:

• As Technology has continued to upend traditional business sectors, it also appears to be capable of disrupting society as a whole. Since the US election, currently the subject of an ongoing special counsel investigation, deals involving companies specializing in cybersecurity have increased. In Q1 2017, the first full quarter following the election, there were 19 transactions worth a total of US$ 437m. In Q1 2018, this figure increased by four transactions and 2.5x in value to 23 transactions worth a collective US$ 1.1bn. For comparison, in Q1 2016, prior to both the US election and the Brexit vote, there were only nine cybersecurity deals, though total deal value did reach US$ 5.5bn, mostly due to US-based Leidos Holdings’ US$ 5bn bid for Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions
• Overall, global TMT activity was up 87.1% in value in Q1 2018 to US$ 134bn worth of deals compared to US$ 71.6bn announced in Q1 2017. However, deal count fell by 20 transactions from 815 deals in Q1 2017 to 795 in Q1 2018, continuing a downward trend over the last three quarters. The largest transaction, and the only mega-deal (>US$ 10bn) of Q1 2018 was the US$ 10.5bn takeover of Denmark-based TDC, a telecom company providing both traditional and digital services, by a consortium including PKA Pension Funds, Arbejdsmarkedets Tillægspension, and Macquarie’s European Infrastructure and Real Assets Group