Waiting for the M&A boom in the ICT sector – despite digitalisation

Established enterprises should also develop their technological capacities in order to fully harness the opportunities of growing digitalisation. One way to do this is to acquire or participate in enterprises that offer technologies or knowledge that are relevant to digitalisation. Information and communication technology (ICT) firms would be particularly attractive targets. Analyses by KfW Research show that acquirers’ interest in small and medium-sized ICT firms that offer products and services that are relevant to digitalisation has indeed increased slightly since the mid-2000s. The number and share of M&A deals targeting a small or medium-sized IT or information service provider have increased moderately. But so far there has been no wave of takeovers. Moreover, most of the M&A transactions remain within the ICT sector. Other sectors also show only a slowly growing interest in small and medium-sized IT and information service providers.

Waiting for the M&A boom in the ICT sector – despite digitalisation(PDF, 323 KB, non-accessible)