SaaS Mega-Acquisitions: Why Financial Fundamentals Don't Drive Deal Valuations

SAP's $8.3B acquisition of Concur sets a record as the largest SaaS acquisition by dollar value, with an EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 11.0x tied for the highest among comparable public-to-public SaaS deals. Analysis of seven major SaaS acquisitions reveals that traditional financial metrics like growth rate and gross margin have weak predictive power for acquisition multiples, suggesting strategic factors like brand, management, competitive dynamics, and strategic fit drive pricing instead.