Q1 2026

Telecom M&A Update

In Q1, the State Street SPDR S&P Telecom ETF increased by 21.3%, outperforming a 3.4% decrease in the S&P 500 over the same period.
The median EV/EBITDA multiple for reported strategic deals in the Telecom sector increased to 13.9x in Q1 from 6.7x in 2025.
M&A deal volume in the sector decreased 20.0% in Q1 to 84 deals from 105 in Q4 2025, and increased 40.0% from 60 deals in Q1 of the prior year.
Europe was the most active region in Q1 with 37 deals. Most notably in the quarter was Europe with Hansen Technologies’ $44.4 million acquisition of Digitalk, a UK-based developer of a cloud-based real-time communications platform.
Total capital invested in M&A transactions increased substantially in Q1, up 287.0% to $29.8B from $7.7B in Q4 2025. This increase was primarily due to Verizon Communications’ $20.8B acquisition of Frontier Communications while the largest reported deal in Q4 was Bharti Space’s $1.6B investment into Eutelsat Communications.