Information technology M&A activity in North America fell to its lowest level of 2022 in December, with just one multibillion-dollar deal.

An investor group led by Thoma Bravo LP and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority agreed to acquire Coupa Software Inc. for a gross value of $9.02 billion in the region's largest infotech deal by far that month. The nine other deals that comprised the rest of the top 10 largest transactions in December had a total value of $751.4 million combined, well short of the Coupa Software transaction.

The Coupa Software deal marked Thoma Bravo's sixth take-private acquisition from a major U.S. exchange last year, as it and other strategic private equity buyers picked up some targets at relatively low rates following a market sell-off.

All in all, the infotech sector saw 122 deals in December, down 60.3% year over year. That made December the slowest month for infotech M&A since May 2020.

DLH Holdings Corp.'s acquisition of information technology services provider Grove Resource Solutions Inc. on Dec. 8 was the month's second-largest deal at $184.4 million, followed by blank-check company SportsMap Tech Acquisition Corp.'s $125.5 million agreement to purchase Infrared Cameras Holdings Inc.

* Learn more about how private equity firms emerged as consolidators in key technology subsectors. * Read S&P Global Market Intelligence's analysis of November infotech M&A trends. * Run a custom screen of M&A by industry or geography on our Transactions Statistics page.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Piper Sandler & Co. are financial advisers to the Thoma Bravo-led investor group on its acquisition of Coupa Software, which is expected to close in the first half of 2023. Qatalyst Partners LP is the financial adviser to the software company.

Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners earlier last year were financial advisers to software company Anaplan Inc. on its $10.38 billion sale to Thoma Bravo, for which each firm earned $55 million in advisory fees and $3 million for providing a fairness opinion.

The Anaplan sale, completed in June, was the seventh-largest infotech deal of 2022. Broadcom Inc.'s proposed $71.71 billion acquisition of VMware Inc. was last year's largest infotech transaction, followed by Adobe Inc.'s $19.41 billion bid in September 2022 for rival Figma Inc.