According to research firm the Corum Group, the average value of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) deal in the games industry has doubled in the last five years.
Compared to the first half of 2009, the average value of M&A deal was worth $42 million, which is a far cry from this year’s $84 million. That figure is a 57 percent increase year-on-year; though the Corum Group’s data excludes deals valued above $1 billion — with one example of this being Activision’s $5.8 billion buyout.
In total, there were 78 such M&A transactions in the first half of 2014, which is the highest in two years. Alina Soltys, senior analyst at Corum states:
Total volume, total value and average deal value have all hit new benchmarks…Mega-deals like Activision and Pokerstars have helped set the stage, but even without the multibillion-dollar transactions, game deal value has had a record 12 months
Not counting multi-billion dollar deals, total M&A value in the last 12 months was much higher than any equivalent period in the past. In the second half of 2013, $2.7 billion in deals were done compared to 2014’s $3.05 billion within the same time frame. Once you factor in the multi-billion deals, this discrepancy is even higher, with the last two six-month periods lording it over compared to the previous year with $8.88 billion and $7.17 billion respectively.
[Source: Games Industry]
