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The latest Enterprise Software M&A report from Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for software and technology companies, reveals that 892 deals took place in 1H2024. This was only fractionally less than what was seen in the previous reporting period and indicates that the Enterprise Software sector has retained momentum.

Miro Parizek, Founder and Senior Partner at Hampleton Partners, said: “The sector maintained momentum, with Enterprise Software tools playing increasingly vital roles in allowing businesses to meeting mission-critical objectives and realize efficiencies.”

The latest Autotech & Mobility M&A report from Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for software and technology companies, reveals that 38 deals took place in 1H2024. This is the second consecutive decline in half-year deal numbers since the 77 transactions recorded in 1H2023, which was the second-highest volume on record.

The shift in activity reflects a general caution among investors and acquirers, with macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures instilling a more risk-averse approach. However, soaring global sales of electric vehicles, which reached a record-high in Q2 2024, together with the concurrent demand for next-gen automotive technologies such as ADAS and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems, indicate that the Autotech M&A market is poised for an upwards trajectory.

Waves of consolidation are also expected to energise dealmaking, particularly within the highly fragmented EV charging segment where a plethora of smaller players are ripe targets for acquisition.

Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for software and technology companies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Brecht as Sector Principal for Autotech, Mobility, Infrastructure, and Energy.

With more than 25 years of executive experience in IT and software services, digital commerce, and smart mobility and infrastructure solutions, Michael is globally known as a panel host and keynote speaker at events ranging from e-mobility and EV summits to the World Economic Forum Seoul.

The latest IT & Business Services M&A report from Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for software and technology companies, reveals that the blistering activity seen in the sector in recent years has slowed, with 558 deals recorded within the sector in 1H2024. This is notably lower than what was recorded for 2H2023, and comes after a two-year period where IT & Business Services companies were acquired in record-breaking numbers.

While the subdued momentum can largely be attributed to continuing inflationary and geopolitical pressures impacting the tech industry as a whole, it may also represent a normalisation in deal activity following the boom which accompanied the worldwide digitalisation of workplaces – a phenomenon accelerated by the pandemic.

The latest Digital Commerce M&A report from Hampleton Partners, the international M&A and corporate finance advisory firm for software and technology companies, reveals that 1,089 deals were struck in the sector in 1H2024, compared to the 1,063 deals recorded in the previous six-month period.

The modest uptick in M&A activity reflects a degree of market recovery following the post-pandemic decline. However, macroeconomic challenges and geopolitical tumult continue to have an impact, as can be seen in a fall in the trailing 30-month median revenue multiple, which has dropped for the second six-month period in a row.

If there’s a textbook example of a nation that punches well beyond its weight on the international stage, that nation is Luxembourg. Tucked discreetly between Belgium, Germany and France, its well known for its diminutive dimensions: you can drive the whole length of the country in around an hour and a half, and its population is less than a fourteenth the size of London’s.

Yet Luxembourg’s size is inversely proportional to its wealth and influence. According to the latest country rankings by the IMF, Luxembourg has the largest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. It’s one of the nerve centres of the European Union, with much of its population made up of foreign nationals boasting elite-tier connections across the globe. And it’s a key financial hub, home to the European Investment Bank (the lending arm of the EU) and numerous corporate banking institutions.

To say AI in the UK is going great guns would be an understatement. The country is home to twice as many companies providing AI products and services than any other country in Europe. And with a domestic AI market that’s tipped to grow to over $1 trillion by 2035, the UK is currently the third-biggest player in this sector, behind China and the United States.

A confluence of factors has pushed Britain to the vanguard of this industrial revolution. High among them is the fact that the infrastructure for innovation was put into place well before the phrase “generative AI” was on everybody’s lips.

Back in October last year, we reported that the IT & Business Services sector had just enjoyed bumper M&A activity, with more deals reported in 1H2023 than in any six-month period on record. Now, the release of our most recent IT & Business Services M&A report has confirmed that the sector has remained on bullish form since that data was compiled, with 2H2023 seeing the third-highest deal volume on record.

As Hampleton Partners MD Konstantin Kastius comments in the report, the high numbers “underscore continuing demand for enterprise services and solutions that are increasingly vital for remaining competitive and overcoming expertise deficits in an age of pedal-to-the-metal digital acceleration.”

A couple of years ago, Gartner forecasted a growth in global business spending on workplace IT infrastructure and software, with the research firm describing the industry as “recession-proof”. An analyst noted “the shift from buying technology to building, composing and assembling technology to meet specific business drivers”, describing this shift as “foundational to the growth of cloud over on-premises” spending.

This was echoed by Forrester Research, which noted that despite soaring inflation and other headwinds, “growth in Enterprise Software spending is expected to plow on”, to the extent that “leading software vendors can raise prices consistently without losing demand, resulting in high and stable margins.”

Digital Commerce is one of Hampleton Partners’ specialisms, and our latest M&A report into this space has revealed some interesting data points. The first and most obvious takeaway is that overall transaction numbers remain markedly lower than the protracted surge we saw over the pandemic period, when the societal impact of lockdowns drove unprecedented demand for online retailers and related software solutions vendors.

But the report also highlights signs of a ripening market environment, with the cracking open of the IPO window and an appetite among investors and strategic buyers to stake their claim on game-changing developments within e-commerce.