Financial Technology, Data, and Analytics

Dear Clients and Friends,

Our latest update on M&A trends for the four segments of the Enterprise Data & Analytics sector that we follow, and sometimes lead, can be found below.

While many eyes have been focused on the recent rise in the value of large publicly traded companies, we have been focused on values in the middle market – watching the value of EDA firms that IPO, as well as those that transact in the private markets. So far, the view has been pretty good.

As examples, Insight Venture Partners-backed Alteryx (NYSE:AYX), a well known name in Business Intelligence known for its integration with Tableau (NYSE:DATA), listed on the NYSE on March 24th, and is currently trading at 11x LTM revenue with a $1bn market cap.

MongoDB, the open source database and analytics firm that has raised over $300mm in 12 rounds of financing, recently filed for an IPO with the SEC and is currently valued at $1.6bn, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Cloudera (NYSE:CLDR) raised $225mm in its IPO, implying an enterprise value of $1.9bn and valuing the company at an implied 7.2x LTM revenue…and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more. 

Meanwhile, as we’ve discussed before, for many businesses, values in private transactions for many EDA companies have also been strong. For some of them, an IPO may  be the eventual route. But being a public company often creates significant administrative, financial and legal burdens. With the amount of capital available, it often makes more sense to many firms to consider other routes to shareholder liquidity. 

Our report below highlights the recent private market activity for many of the EDA firms that we follow. Some interesting recent transactions include:

• TBG (Zurich, Switzerland) agreed to acquire Telvent DTN from Schneider Electric for $900mm, valuing the company at an implied 4.2x LTM revenue,
• Thales (ENXTPA:HO) agreed to acquire Guavus for $215mm,
• Qualtrics (Provo, UT) raised $180mm in a Series C funding round led by Insight Venture Partners and Accel Partners, and that included return investor Sequoia Capital.

We also are pleased to note that we have been named a finalist in The 9th Annual International M&A Advisor Awards for our role advising Xignite on its capital raise from Japan’s Quick Corporation a part of the  Nikkei Group. For more on that transaction, click here.

Please see our full May Enterprise Data & Analytics M&A Update, below.