Against a backdrop of tariffs, trade wars, and media wars, Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) has arguably been the top sector to watch in the year to date. Among the most high profile events in just the last couple of months, the sector has witnessed the collapse of the NXP/Qualcomm transaction as a result of trade tensions between China and the US, as well as Comcast abandoning its bid for Fox in an effort to focus more on its bid for Sky in its growing battles with Disney over market share.
Despite all of the upheaval, the sector grew in the first half of the year, according to Mergermarket data through the end of H1 2018, with total deal value for the sector globally reaching US$ 371.1bn, a 107% jump in value compared to US$ 2017 (US$ 179.4bn).
The full report is available to view here:
http://www.mergermarket.com/pdf/H12018TMTTrendReport.pdf
Highlights of the report include:
- Technology accounted for the largest share of TMT ’s total deal value – 46.2% with US$ 171.5bn, while Tech’s deal count of 1,329 transactions was responsible for 78.5% of TMT ’s total volume for the period.
- Telecom accounted for the second-largest share of deal value with US$ 111.2bn, or 35.1%, and 59 transactions, or 3.5% of volume. The sub-sector was boosted by the largest deal of the period, Sprint’s US$ 58.9bn bid for T-Mobile, which accounted for 53% of total value.
- Geographically, the US led in market share with US$ 143.9bn and 646 deals, representing a 39% share of global TMT value, with Europe on its heels with US$ 129.8bn and 569 deals, representing a 35% share of value. Activity in the sector for the first half of the year pushed ahead of the previous record set in 2014 (US$ 205.6bn) with US$ 221.6bn announced so far.
- Nearly a third of Europe’s total value was due to Comcast’s US$ 40.7bn bid for Sky Plc, a bid which is likely to increase in H2 2018 as Comcast’s war with Disney heats up over media assets.
