In this edition of Kroll's Global Software Sector Update—Spring 2024 update from Kroll, Kroll’s M&A Advisory practice evaluate the deal activity, transactions and public markets during Q1 2024 as well as the outlook for the next quarter.
The first quarter of 2024 saw strategic buyers step up their level of deal activity, with some notably large transactions, such as Synopsys’ $31.9 billion acquisition of Ansys and HPE’s $12.8 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, helping drive quarterly deal value in Q1 2024 to more than double the level of Q1 2023 (+121%). However, the number of deals continued to decline, with just 519 deals compared with 623 in the same period of 2023 (-17%), as PE buyers continue to be less active, hamstrung by a combination of still sluggish deal flow and continued tight credit markets.
As we head toward the summer, there is a general sense of a continued improvement in market conditions leading to a more active deal cadence in the second half of 2024. Learn more about the insights in our report.
