A cheat sheet of tech acquisitions in Southeast Asia

Queena Wadyanti compiled the data for this list.

Southeast Asia has seen its fair share of M&A deals over the years. Some have been blockbuster moves, such as Alibaba’s US$1 billion deal to acquire Lazada and Seek’s US$586 million purchase of JobStreet, while others flew under the radar.

Data on Southeast Asia’s M&A deals are hard to come by, which is why we’ve put this together. We hope you’ll find it useful.

But first, some caveats

M&A transactions can be all-stock, cash, or a mix of both, so a high transaction value does not mean shareholders get good returns. Some deals are also made under irregular circumstances: For example, Joyy’s chairman and CEO is also the CEO of Bigo.

We do acknowledge that there are limitations to our dataset. If you see something that’s missing or incorrect, do reach out to us at research@techinasia.com and let us know. And please be nice. 🙂

Now, let’s dive in.

Southeast Asia is certainly seeing more M&A deals since we first started tracking the region, with Singapore Press Holding’s HardwareZone acquisition being the very first deal on our list.

2019 was the peak, clocking in 60 M&As with notable deals including Bigo (US$1.45 billion), Wavecell (US$125 million), Coins.ph (US$72 million), and Red Dot Payment (US$65 million). Seven months in and despite the pandemic, 2020 has recorded 27 M&As. If the trend remains constant, the region should see another 19 M&As by the end of this year.

While Southeast Asia’s average deal size stands at US$74.7 million, its M&A check sizes are considered small, with a median of US$6 million. Ecommerce, fintech, media, adtech, and social networking-related companies made up almost half of all M&As in the region.

When it comes to M&As by country, Singapore tops the chart, as it is a convenient hub for companies to incorporate.

Interestingly, Gojek has made eight M&A deals so far, two times more than the runners-up. Its acquisitions include Moka, Loket, and MVCommerce.