Deal Tracker: IBM's $7.7B HashiCorp purchase lifts infotech M&A in April

International Business Machines Corp.'s proposed $7.70 billion acquisition of HashiCorp Inc. emerged as North America's biggest information technology M&A deal in April and helped drive a year-over-year increase in the sector's monthly aggregate transaction value.

IT companies in the US and Canada struck 149 M&A transactions with a combined value of $11.68 billion in April 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. This marked a jump from the $1.46 billion combined value of 139 deals recorded in April 2023, thanks to three deals worth over $1 billion each that were announced last month, including IBM's planned purchase of HashiCorp.

The total IT deal value and volume for April also increased from March, when 131 deals were announced with a combined value of $3.99 billion.

The IBM-HashiCorp deal ranks as the third largest IT M&A transaction so far in 2024 and is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to the approvals of regulators and HashiCorp shareholders and other customary closing conditions.

IBM will acquire HashiCorp, a multicloud infrastructure automation company, for $35 per share in cash. IBM said the acquisition fits into its strategy to focus and invest in hybrid cloud and AI technologies.

IBM tapped JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Capital Inc. as financial advisers on the transaction. Qatalyst Partners LP was the financial adviser to HashiCorp.

– Read more about the IT M&A activity in the US and Canada in March 2024. – Use S&P Capital IQ Pro's Transactions Statistics page to run a custom screen of M&A by industry or geography.

CoStar Group Inc.'s bid to acquire all outstanding shares of Matterport Inc. from an investor group in a $2.01 billion cash-and-stock transaction was the second-largest IT M&A deal in April.

The transaction is expected to close in 2024, subject to the approval of Matterport stockholders and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Under the terms of the deal, Matterport stockholders will receive $2.75 in cash and $2.75 in shares of CoStar Group common stock for each share of Matterport common stock.

CoStar Group expects the acquisition to increase the development and deployment of AI and digital twin technology across its product lines. The investor group tapped Qatalyst Partners as financial adviser.

The third multibillion-dollar deal announced in April was Vista Equity Partners Management LLC's agreement to acquire Model N Inc., a provider of revenue management software solutions, for a gross transaction value of about $1.50 billion. The deal is expected to close in mid-2024.

Design automation software provider Synopsys Inc.'s deal to acquire engineering software company ANSYS Inc. is the largest transaction announced so far in 2024. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025.