In brief
We need to change the conversation on data.
Over the past 18 months we've seen data play an increasing role in M&A, and the recurring theme is one of opportunity and undervalued assets. This explosion of activity naturally began with the data services and data-driven businesses, but now, data opportunities and risks are impacting the headline price, post-completion deal value and risk-allocation profile of M&A transactions in all sectors.
And yet, data remains one of the most undervalued assets, with most companies still failing to even include it as an asset on their balance sheet. Buyers and sellers who can recognise data assets and properly demonstrate how value can be extracted from them will be best placed for future M&A transactions.
Key trends
- Data services businesses predicted to have highest level of M&A activity over the next 12 months
- Data-driven deals attracting huge valuations
- Hidden value: the increasing focus on the data rich assets of non-data business
- The next big wave of infrastructure investment: core+ asset deals set to explode