The European IT sector's aggregate M&A value surged to $8.24 billion in April, the highest year-to-date, against $2.56 billion recorded in April 2022, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. This came despite a 40.9% year-over-year decline in the number of deals during the month under review to 127.
The top two deals in April also featured among the top two transactions in the sector year-to-date.
German transaction services provider Deutsche Börse AG, the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, made a $4.37 billion bid for Denmark-based SimCorp A/S in the largest announced M&A agreement in the sector so far this year.
The deal to acquire SimCorp, a provider of specialized software for investment management, is expected to close in the third quarter and is subject to the approval of regulators in the EU and the US. Credit Suisse International is the financial adviser to SimCorp on the deal, while Morgan Stanley is the financial adviser to Deutsche Börse.
Private equity company Silver Lake Technology Management LLC's offer to buy Germany's Software AG for $3.17 billion was the second-largest deal in April, an offer Software is keen to recommend despite a relatively higher offer made by another party.
Silver Lake already made an investment of €344 million in the German software company via a convertible bond in February 2022, according to an April 22 Dow Jones Newswires report.
– Read about the European IT industry's M&A volume in March.
– Use our Transactions Statistics page to run a custom screen of M&A by industry or geography.
Meanwhile, Insight Venture Management LLC's $228.8 million deal to acquire Swedish software company SignUp Software AB was the third-biggest deal of the month. The offer is fully financed and will be funded by a mix of equity provided by funds affiliated with Insight and a loan from a syndicate of lenders.
SignUp is the operator of ExFlow, a solution for electronic accounts payable, invoice process automation and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
The other valuable deals in April were contributed by the IT consulting, communications equipment, application software and electronic equipment subsectors.