M&A Software Sector Update Q2-2025
Our M&A Software Sector Update provides a concise overview of current developments and trends in the software sector for the second quarter of 2025. In addition to the evolution of software M&A activities, including a summary of selected M&A transactions in Germany and Europe, we analyze the capital markets environment by software sub-segments, including valuation multiples at both European and global levels.
Our M&A specialists, Matthias Meyer and Marcus Klein, provide a brief summary of the previous quarter and offer some insightful observations about the state of the market:
Despite ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, the software M&A market showed resilience in Q2-2025, with both deal activity and valuation multiples holding up. Global transaction volume reached EUR 174bn, broadly in line with the prior-year period, despite the number of deals declined slightly from an exceptionally strong quarter a year earlier. Strategic buyers and financial sponsors are still actively seeking suitable targets.
Content overview:
- Recent share price performance of software companies by segment: Horizontal vs. Vertical vs. Infrastructure Software as well as SaaS vs. Non-SaaS
- M&A sentiment - development of the software M&A market since 2020, particularly in Q2-2025, incl. an overview of selected transactions in the second quarter of 2025
- Software valuation metrics/trading multiples and operating statistics
- By region
- By software segment and revenue model
- The ‘Rule of 40’ as a key (value creation) metric for software companies and LTM performance of listed software companies vs. ‘Rule of 40’ in terms of growth and profitability
Find out more about the latest developments in the software sector in the full version of the BDO M&A Software Sector Update Q2-2025.
