Navigating turbulent waters

Despite the economic storm, European software cuts a dash through choppy waters. The sector has also performed resiliently through the recession, with most companies maintaining growth – unlike the battered broader TMT sectors, especially Media, or the adjacent IT hardware and services sectors.

Our European Top 100 list is dominated by US owned companies – 44 of them accounting for €34bn in sales, almost two thirds of the total. Outside these, there are also a number of large European owned players generating significant revenues – Germany has the second most valuable set of Software companies in the Top 100 with 11 German companies accounting for approximiately €7bn annual revenue. UK and France come next, housing the headquarters of companies representing approximately €3bn of European software revenue each. However, the UK’s influence on the Software market is larger than it appears.