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FE International is an award-winning global M&A advisor of SaaS, e-commerce and content businesses. It has completed acquisitions for thousands of founders, owners and acquirers, and is the preeminent valuation thought leader in the industry. Its team includes experts in exit planning, valuation, accounting, legal and more.
Founded in 2010, FE is known for its extensive network of pre-qualified international investors. With headquarters in New York and regional offices in Miami, San Francisco and London, FE is an international company serving clients worldwide. It was named one of The Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies in 2021 and 2020 by The Financial Times and is also a two-time Inc. 5000 company.
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesSaaS Valuation Multiples in 2026: Private Deal Benchmarks by ARR, Growth, and Retention
Private SaaS businesses trade at roughly 2x to 7x ARR in 2026, with the range set by scale, growth, and retention rather than by sector averages. Public enterprise SaaS trades near 3.3x trailing revenue. Companies clearing the Rule of 40 with net revenue retention above 120% reach the top of the range. That is the short answer. The longer answer is the one that actually determines your exit price, because the spread inside those ranges is enormous.
Key-Person Risk: How to Make Your Business Sellable Without You
Key-person risk is the share of a business’s revenue, decisions and knowledge that runs through one individual, usually the founder. Buyers price it directly. High dependence lowers the multiple, shifts money out of cash at close into escrow and earnouts, and lengthens the transition you are asked to commit to after closing. Every technology business has some of this. The founder who wrote the first version of the product usually still knows it better than anyone.
How to Choose an M&A Advisor: 11 Questions to Ask Before You Sign
To choose an M&A advisor, verify four things before you sign: proven specialisation in your sector, closed transactions at your size in the last 24 to 36 months, a named senior lead who runs your deal day to day. The eleven questions below test each one. Most founders interview two or three firms, hear broadly similar pitches, and pick the one that quotes the highest number.
Marketplace Apps M&A in 2026: Platform Ecosystems, Shopify Apps, and Acquisition Trends
The Apple App Store ecosystem alone facilitated over $1.4 trillion in developer billings and sales during 2025, and developers kept every cent of more than 90% of it. Shopify merchants moved $115.6 billion in gross merchandise volume in a single quarter. Sitting on top of those two numbers is a category of business that almost never makes the headlines and changes hands constantly: marketplace apps.
SaaS Churn Rate: How to Calculate, Benchmark, and Reduce Churn Before Selling Your Business
There is a 4.8x valuation gap sitting inside one metric. McKinsey’s analysis of more than 100 B2B SaaS companies found that companies in the top quartile of valuation multiples traded at a median 24 times revenue, against 5 times for the bottom quartile. The retention profile separating those two groups is narrower than most founders expect: 113% net revenue retention at the top, 98% at the bottom. Fifteen percentage points of retention, nearly five times the price.
Marketplace App Valuations in 2026: Multiples, Metrics, and What Drives Premium Exits
In February 2026, eBay agreed to pay approximately $1.2 billion in cash for Depop, a mobile-first fashion marketplace running roughly $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales. Do the arithmetic and the headline number resolves to about 1.2 times gross volume.
Cybersecurity M&A in 2026: Compliance-Driven Acquisitions, AI Security, and Market Consolidation
Cybersecurity M&A in 2026 is moving at a pace the sector has never seen. Buyers announced 426 cybersecurity acquisitions in 2025, with disclosed value reaching $92.5 billion, an 82% jump over the prior year, and that momentum has carried straight into this year. Google closed its $32 billion purchase of Wiz in March 2026, the largest acquisition in its history. Palo Alto Networks completed its $25 billion CyberArk deal in February.
Mid-Year 2026 Tech M&A Report: Deal Volume, Multiples, and What the Second Half Looks Like
Global dealmaking just posted the strongest first half ever recorded. Announced M&A reached a record $2.8 trillion in the first six months of 2026, up 48% year over year and the highest first-half total since LSEG began tracking the market in 1980. Technology led every other sector, generating $649 billion in announced transactions. This tech M&A mid-year 2026 report breaks down what happened in the first half, what it means for valuations, and where the second half is heading.
How to Value a Shopify or DTC Ecommerce Brand in 2026
US shoppers spent $326.7 billion online in the first quarter of 2026, up 9.8% year over year and growing at more than double the pace of retail as a whole. Behind that number sit hundreds of thousands of independent Shopify and DTC brands, and a deepening pool of buyers who want to own them.
What Is Quality of Earnings (QoE) and Why Every Tech Seller Needs One Before Going to Market
Buyers came back in force. Global M&A rose 40% to $4.9 trillion in 2025, the second-highest deal value on record, and 80% of M&A executives expect activity to hold or increase through 2026. For technology founders, that headline hides the detail that matters most: the quality of earnings in tech M&A now decides who captures that demand. Capital is concentrating around businesses that can prove their numbers, and earnings quality has become the first filter every serious buyer applies.