< Key Hightlight >

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the tech, media, and telecom (TMT) market bounced back from the impact of COVID-19 in 2020 to achieve nearly $1 trillion in transaction value. Q2 2020 saw just 103 M&A deals in the sector – the lowest quarterly deal count in the last five years – but volume rebounded to 230 in Q3 and 222 in Q4, making the second half of the year the highest in terms of both deal count and deal value in the last five years.

GlobalData expects M&A activity to continue at such a high level throughout 2021 as companies focus on their key technologies and adjust to the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic:

Snigdha Parida, analyst for Thematic Research at GlobalData, commented: “The most lucrative themes driving M&As in 2020 were connectivity, big data, cloud, fintech, digital media, gaming, the internet of things (IoT), healthtech, the future of work and ecommerce. The report identifies the overall themes that drove M&A in TMT. It also categorizes all major deals announced between 2016 and 2020 into their respective sectors, with details of the themes driving each deal.

Scope

• This report provides an overview of merger and acquisition activity in the global TMT market in 2020 and assesses the impact of COVID-19 on M&A activity.
• It identifies the M&A deals announced in the TMT market between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020 and provides comprehensive sector-by-sector analysis of the themes driving this activity.

Key Highlights

• Despite the global pandemic, total M&A activity in the global technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector reached $903bn in 2020, up 25% on 2019. The total number of deals in 2020 reached 702, but most activity occurred in the second half of the year.
• Q2 2020 saw just 103 M&A deals in the TMT sector, the lowest quarterly deal count in the last five years. The number of deals climbed to 230 in Q3 and 222 in Q4, making the second half of 2020 the highest in terms of both deal count and deal value in the last five years.

Reasons to buy

This report offers a unique perspective on M&A activity in the TMT sector by focusing on the themes driving deals. This allows for a deeper understanding of the themes that are shaping the industry. In addition, it provides fresh insight into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on M&As, including analysis of proposed deals that have been postponed due to the pandemic.

Companies mentioned

3D Systems 

ABB 

Abbott 

Acacia 

Accenture 

Activision Blizzard 

Acxiom 

Adidas 

Adobe 

ADT 

Advantage Solutions 

Aeva 

Afimilk 

Alarm.com 

Alibaba 

Alphatec 

Alteryx 

Amazon 

Ambarella 

AMC Networks 

AMD 

America Movil 

AMS 

Anixter International 

Ant Group 

Apple 

Aptiv 

Arrival 

ASOS 

AT&T 

Atos 

Atresmedia 

Autodesk 

Automation Anywhere 

Automation-Edge 

Axel Springer 

B2W Cia Digital 

BAE Systems 

Baidu 

Banks 

Bloomberg 

Blue Prism 

Boohoo.com 

Booking Holdings 

Bosch 

Box 

Broadcom 

Cambricon 

Canon 

CAR 

Carmakers 

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (owns 10% stake) 

CBS 

CD Projekt 

CGI 

ChannelAdvisor 

Check Point Software 

Chegg 

Ciena 

Cinedigm 

Cisco 

Citrix Systems 

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice 

Cloudera 

Codemasters 

Cognex 

Cognizant 

Comcast 

ComScore 

Comtech 

Consumer goods companies 

Continental 

Cornerstone OnDemand 

CoStar 

Coursera 

Criteo 

Dassault Systèmes 

Delivery Hero 

Dell 

Denso 

Dentsu 

Desjardins Group 

Dish Network 

Disney 

DJI 

Domo 

DoorDash 

Dropbox 

D-Wave Systems 

Dyson 

E2Open 

eBay 

EHang 

Electronic Arts 

eNett 

Enova 

Entertainment companies 

Enthusiast Gaming 

EOS imaging 

EPAM Systems 

Epic Games 

Equity firms 

Ericsson 

Euromoney 

Expedia 

EY 

Facebook 

Fang Holdings 

Fanuc 

FireEye 

Fisker 

Fitbit 

Flutter Entertainment 

Forrester Research 

Fortinet 

Future Today 

Garmin 

Gartner 

GE 

GE Digital 

Genpact 

Gilat Satellite 

Glu mobile 

GoDaddy 

Google 

GoPro 

Graf Industrial 

Graphcore 

Groupon 

Grubhub 

Harmonic Drive 

Havas 

HCL 

HelloFresh 

Hikvision 

Hilton worldwide 

Honda 

Honeywell 

HP 

HPE 

HTC 

Huawei 

IAC Interactive 

IBM 

Indra Sistemas 

Infineon 

Infinera 

Informa 

Infosys 

Intel 

Interpublic 

Intuit 

Intuitive Surgical 

iRobot 

ITV 

JCDecaux 

JD.com 

John Deere 

Johnson & Johnson 

Juniper Networks 

JustEat 

Kakaku 

Keyence 

Klarna 

KPMG 

Largan Precision 

Lemonade 

LendingClub 

LendingTree 

Lenovo 

LG Electronics 

Lions Gate Entertainment 

Livestock Improvement 

Lockheed Martin 

Luminar Technologies