February, 2016

E-Commerce M&A continues to see strong activity. 2015 transaction volume of 369 deals is just below record 2014 levels.  During 2014, there were 375 transactions, an increase of over 12% from the prior year. For 2015, strategic buyers accounted for 81% of the e-commerce M&A transactions with financial buyers making up the difference.  During 2014, strategic buyers accounted for just over 85% of the transactions.

For announced transactions (albeit a limited sample size), e-commerce multiples saw a modest increase from 10.5x EBITDA and 0.7x revenue in 2014 to 10.9x EBITDA and 1.4x revenue in 2015. Peakstone equally weighted e-commerce index continues to outperform the S&P 500.

Notable publicly announced 2015 transactions:

– LeftLane Sports, Inc. acquired Retail Innovation Group, Inc. for approximately $19 million.

– Hudson’s Bay Company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gilt Groupe Inc. for approximately $250 million.

– QVC, Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire zulily, Inc. for approximately $2.5 billion.

– Gamestop entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Geeknet for approximately $130 million.

– Expedia entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Orbitz for $1.4 billion.

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