Market Observatory · 2026-Q3

European software serial acquirer multiples, 2026

What 13 buyers actually paid per unit of acquired revenue, from filed accounts — the median, the range, and the 44 deals that disclose nothing usable.

What do European software serial acquirers pay? Across the 33 acquisition prices the register can evidence from filed accounts (28 single companies, the rest cohort or aggregate disclosures), the median is 3.14x the acquired company’s annual revenue, the range 0.53x to 13.95x. That is the answer this page can give, and the rest of it is about what the number does and does not mean: 44 of the 77 acquisitions on file disclose no usable price at all, and the 33 that do are the ones their buyers chose to disclose.

3.14xmedian price paid per unit of annual revenue, 28 single-company prices

0.53x–13.95xfull range, cheapest to dearest

44 of 77acquisitions on file disclose no usable price at all

1.8%–18.0%of revenue goes out as interest, least to most borrowed

By how well the price is evidenced

The register colours every price by where the number comes from, not by who the buyer is. The split matters: a measured figure and a ceiling are not the same kind of fact.

Basis	Observations	Median	Range	Meaning
measured	27	3.14x	0.77x–13.95x	consideration and revenue both stated in the acquisition note — nothing computed but the division.
scaled from a stake	3	2.27x	0.53x–7.68x	price paid for a majority stake, scaled to 100% — a control premium would make the true figure lower.
reconstructed	3	2.10x	1.18x–3.92x	derived from disclosed revenue and goodwill bridges, because the buyer never states the price per acquisition; the individual figure appears nowhere.

By year of acquisition

The register runs from 2023 to 2026. 2025 carries the most disclosed prices (15, median 4.75x); the other years are thinner and their medians move with a handful of deals.

Year	Observations	Median	Range	Buyers disclosing
2023	2	1.64x	1.18x–2.10x	Bending Spoons, Software Circle
2024	14	2.31x	0.53x–7.68x	Banyan Software UK, ClearCourse, Everfield, Hawk Infinity, Software Circle, Visma
2025	15	4.75x	1.08x–13.95x	Bending Spoons, Software Circle, TeamSystem, The Access Group, Topicus, Visma
2026	2	2.01x	1.73x–2.30x	Bending Spoons

Year is the buyer’s reporting year in which the acquisition was disclosed. Fewer than five observations in a year is a list, not a distribution.

By buyer

Medians per buyer, from 6.82x (TeamSystem) down to 1.72x (Everfield). The spread between buyers is wider than the spread within most of them — but only 6 buyers have four or more prices on file, so most of these medians are the middle of a couple of points.

Buyer	Prices on file	Cheapest	Median	Dearest
TeamSystem	4	3.14x	6.82x	13.95x
Visma	4	4.22x	6.04x	6.70x
The Access Group	5	4.02x	5.46x	7.83x
ClearCourse	1	2.63x	2.63x	2.63x
Banyan Software UK	1	2.36x	2.36x	2.36x
Hawk Infinity AS	5	0.53x	2.27x	7.68x
Bending Spoons S.p.A.	5	1.08x	2.10x	3.26x
Software Circle plc	3	1.18x	2.10x	3.92x
Topicus.com	1	2.08x	2.08x	2.08x
Everfield	4	1.33x	1.72x	2.11x

Buyers with at least one disclosed price. Chapters Group AG, Constellation Software are tracked for capital deployed and deal counts but state no price against the revenue of a single acquisition. Each buyer’s page has its deals, capital deployed, debt and, where the inputs hold, an estimated cost of capital.

Questions this register can answer

What is the median revenue multiple paid by European software serial acquirers?

3.14x the acquired company’s annual revenue — the median of the 28 single-company prices on file at 2026-09-08 (33 observations including cohort and aggregate rows). The range is 0.53x to 13.95x. These are revenue multiples; earnings multiples cannot be built from the notes.

Which serial acquirer pays the most per unit of revenue?

On medians of disclosed prices, TeamSystem (6.82x across 4 prices). The single dearest observation is 13.95x, paid by TeamSystem for Golden Soft S.L. (ES, practice software). All acquirers.

Which pays the least?

Everfield on medians (1.72x); the cheapest single observation is 0.53x, Hawk Infinity AS for Maskinpakking AS — a price scaled up from a partial stake, so the true figure would be lower still.

How many acquisitions disclose a price at all?

33 of 77 on file. The rest name the target, sometimes its revenue, and stop there. A register that filled the gap with estimates would be guessing; this one records the gap.

How much capital do they deploy?

The largest single year on file is Bending Spoons S.p.A., 1’733.7 EUR m in 2026; Visma makes the most acquisitions (28 in a year). Capital deployed.

What does their debt cost?

Interest actually paid runs from 1.8% to 18.0% of revenue — a tenfold spread between the least and most borrowed. What they owe, and what it costs.

Where do the figures come from?

Every figure is read from a filed annual account or a company’s own published report and carries its source, the date it was retrieved and the version of the code that parsed it. Nothing is modelled or estimated, except the cost-of-capital section, which says so on its face. Method, limits and imprint.

What this does not support

33 observations from 10 buyers is not a market. The sample is the buyers who disclose enough — and there is no reason to assume that is unrelated to what they pay.
These are revenue multiples, not earnings multiples. Most acquisition notes give no usable profit figure for the company bought.
The headline price does not always mean the same thing. Some buyers report contingent consideration inside the price, others alongside it. Where we could check, we did, and it moves individual figures by up to a third.

Changelog

2026-09-24: Register pages published: 12 acquirer pages, 28 deal pages, this overview. Data as at 2026-09-08 (Market Observatory 2026-Q3).
2026-09-08: Data snapshot: 77 acquisitions on file, 33 with a disclosed price, 13 buyers tracked.

The rest of the register

Guess what serial acquirers paid →What European software serial acquirers actually pay, from filed accounts. Guess the price, then see the source.

What was paid, per unit of revenue →Every disclosed acquisition price in the register, one row per observation, coloured by how well it is evidenced.

The acquirers, one by one →Every tracked buyer with its prices, capital deployed, debt and what its capital costs.

Every deal on file →One page per disclosed acquisition, with the filed source and where its price sits in the register.

How much they deploy →How much capital each European software serial acquirer actually puts to work, and across how many acquisitions.

What they owe, and what it costs →Net debt against revenue, the interest each buyer actually pays, and every credit facility on file with its terms.

What their own capital costs →An estimate of what each buyer pays for capital, set against the 20-30% return they demand of the companies they buy.

Method, limits and imprint →How every figure in this register is sourced, what the sample does not support, and the legal notices.

Figures as at 2026-09-08. Every number on this page comes from a filed account or a company’s own published report — how, and what it does not support.