With the growth of the digital world, tech dominance is at an all-time high. Fuelled by acquisition and innovation, tech industries continue to be one of the fastest changing sectors on the global stage. Biggest tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google are already spending billions on acquiring some of the most innovative companies out there (Whittick, 2017).
In fact according to the latest tech news, one of the biggest acquisition ever in technology, if it goes through, Broadcom has bid $103 billion for chip giant Qualcomm. Only time will tell if this mega tech merger deal is successful or falls through. Apart from this possibly biggest technology takeover, we have created the following list of top tech takeovers of all time.
Dell Inc buys EMC- Biggest tech takeovers of all time
Dell buying EMC is one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time. The hardware maker Dell purchased data storage company EMC which was renamed to Dell Technologies. The acquisition helped Dell become an end-to-end technology provider in four major areas namely servers, storage, virtualization and PC’s (IT World Canada, 2017).
Price: $67 billion
Year: 2015
CenturyLink acquires Level 3
Following approval from the Federal Communications Commission, telecom provider CenturyLink merged with fellow service provider Level 3. According to the terms of the deal CenturyLink shareholders own approximately 51 percent and stockholders of Level 3 own 49 percent of the newly formed company. The combined new companies form second largest domestic communications provider serving global enterprise customers (Narcisi, 2017).
Price: $34 billion
Year: 2017
Tech Giant Microsoft acquires LinkedIn
One of the biggest tech companies Microsoft acquired professional networking website LinkedIn. This deal for Microsoft is the biggest acquisition by size and price after acquiring online-video calling company Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011.
Price: $26.2 billion
Year: 2016
Social Media Platform Facebook Buys Whatsapp
This deal changed the landscape of instant messaging after social media giant Facebook acquired Whatsapp. This was one of the largest tech takeover deals ever for a venture capital-backed company.
Price: $22 billion
Year: 2014
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Security Tech Company Verisign Acquires Network Solution
Internet name registrar Network solutions were purchased by security software make Verisign in an all-stock deal. This deal helped Verisign offer a complete set of e-commerce products and services combined with security software to their customers.
Price: $21 billion
Year: 2002
HP Buys Compaq
HP has acquired various companies such as Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $13 billion in 2008 and UK based software firm Autonomy for $11.1 billion in 2011. However, the biggest tech takeover by HP still remains Compaq Company. Compaq was HP’s rival personal computer makers.
Price: $18.6 billion
Year: 2002
Intel Takes Over Mobileye
Not so long ago, Intel announced its plan to acquire the Israel based automotive chip maker MobilEye. Intel combined its Automated Driving Group operations with Mobileye with the intention to create and deliver cloud-to-solutions for the automotive market segment (Narcisi, 2017).
Price: $15.3 billion
Year: 2017
The tech industry continues to be one of the fastest growing sectors across the globe. The amount of money spent by tech giants for acquiring companies is mind-boggling and reveals a desire to innovate quickly, with acquisitions being a quick and easy way to gain technology and expertise. Analyzing the above acquisitions one can easily conclude that tech giants are competing with each other head-to-head in order to gain a head start on the future of technology (Whittick, 2017).
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Source:
- Whittick, S (2017) “Tech Takeovers: Visualizing 30 Years of Acquisitions” ITProportal [online] available from: https://www.itproportal.com/features/tech-takeovers-visualizing-30-years-of-acquisitions/ [accessed March 2018]
- IT World Canada (2017) “Updated: Top 11 biggest tech acquisitions of all time” [online] available from: https://www.itworldcanada.com/slideshow/updated-top-11-biggest-tech-acquisitions-of-all-time [accessed March 2018]
- Narcisi, G (2017) “The 10 Biggest Tech Mergers And Acquisitions Of 2017” CRN [online] available from: https://www.crn.com/slide-shows/channel-programs/300096806/the-10-biggest-tech-mergers-and-acquisitions-of-2017.htm/ [accessed March 2018]
