Brenon Daly

Introduction As painful as the post-pandemic tech M&A slump has been, the market has found the bottom and is set to rebound sharply in 2024. That's the prevailing view from dealmakers in 451 Research's annual Tech M&A Outlook Survey, which included a near-record level of bullishness for activity as well as valuations in the beaten-down sector.

The end of what we have termed an era of post-pandemic "tech-ceptionalism" saw spending on tech and telecom transactions drop by about one-quarter in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to 451 Research's M&A KnowledgeBase. Overall, acquirers around the globe doled out $584 billion last year — an annual total that is skewed by two of the four largest tech deals in the past 20 years of the M&A KnowledgeBase. But those are outliers in 2022. Big prints seemed out of step in a shaky market.

Introduction Even though tech M&A dropped sharply in late 2022, dealmakers see business picking back up this year. Almost half of respondents to 451 Research's annual Tech M&A Outlook survey predict an acceleration in activity in 2023. To pull that off, however, they are going to need acquisition prices to come back down and industry growth to go back up.