2021 continued to be an unexpected and, at times, extremely challenging year during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The regular stream of mergers and acquisitions across the tech sector was one thing that did not change, though. Despite so many economic uncertainties in 2022, companies took a step ahead and the pace of mergers in the IT and tech industry were quite impressive.
The worldwide study of data shows that by Q3, the IT, media, and telecom industries were mostly responsible for the global tech M&A deals that were already close to $3 trillion. While nothing compared to Xilinx’s $35 billion purchase of Advanced Micro Devices in 2020, Intuit did pay $12 billion for Mailchimp, while Square spent a paltry $29 billion on Afterpay.
The tech industry is very wealthy, if you look closely. Despite the fact that economic certainty is growing for the general public, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft have market caps exceeding $1 trillion, and the companies are confidently pushing forward to merge with or purchase additional B2B businesses or digital organizations despite this. One significant thing that internet giants enjoy doing with their money is snatching up rival firms in elaborate merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions.
Huge quantities of money are traded each year in favor of corporate consolidation. Because new blockbuster tech deals significantly alter the landscape so often, keeping track of the most profitable purchases may be quite helpful for staying current in the tech sector. The ranking moves up from small, billion-dollar deals to the biggest IT mergers and acquisitions to date. This year feels like a tremendous roller coaster ride.
Here are the largest IT mergers and acquisitions that have been announced, closed, or are currently under consideration for 2022. (so far).
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1. The biggest bet was made by Oracle on IT Health Care With $28 Billion Cerner Acquisition
In order to increase its presence in the healthcare IT business, Oracle purchased Cerner on June 7. Cerner is a provider of digital information systems for the healthcare industry. Oracle, based in Austin, Texas, made the announcement that they were interested in buying Cerner, a company with headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, in December 2021 and would need to spend the first half of 2022 obtaining the required shareholder and regulatory clearances.
Cerner is now a sector and a business division of Oracle. With the help of the Oracle Autonomous Database, the hands-free Voice digital assistant, and the Apex minimal code development tools, the company has now opted to update the Cerner electronic medical records software.
On a larger scale, Oracle will connect Cerner’s software to the Oracle applications, which will encompass the ERP and human resources services. The acquisition of Oracle is not the only expensive healthcare transaction this year. Nuance Communications, a provider of conversational AI and cloud-based ambient clinical intelligence to the healthcare industry, was acquired by Microsoft for $20 billion in March.
According to the solution providers who spoke with CRN, Oracle practices have a very strong healthcare sector, and the inclusion of Cerner’s technology will strengthen Oracle’s position in the healthcare data analytics and AI fields.
2. Google Acquires Mandiant
Mandiant, a cybersecurity company, has announced a merger with Google. In March of this year, the company agreed to be purchased by Google in an all-cash deal valued at about US$5.4 billion. Later, in September, the company took the decision to create the agreement and announce the acquisition so Mandiant could join Google Cloud while maintaining its own brand.
With this acquisition, Google advanced because it wanted to offer customers a complete security operations suite with even more features to serve them in both cloud and on-premise situations.
3. Salesforce acquires Troops.ai
Salesforce announced that it would buy Troops.ai for an undisclosed sum. Troops.ai, a 2016-founded revenue and communication platform, uses bots in Microsoft Teams and Slack to provide CRM data from platforms like Salesforce.
Salesforce announced that Troops and its staff will join Slack, which it acquired in 2020, when the acquisition is completed in 2023.
“We’ve been a leader in the space, working with some of the fastest-growing companies in the world, including Salesforce and Slack,” Troops CEO and cofounder Dan Reich wrote in a blog post.
We’ve done this by combining the data and actions that customer-facing teams need to close new business with real-time insights from systems of record, like Salesforce, with systems of engagement, like Slack.
4. Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk
The richest guy in the world began purchasing shares of the social media network Twitter at the beginning of 2022. In April, he became Twitter’s top shareholder with a 9.1% stake. He was driven by this to submit an unsolicited offer of US$44 billion to purchase the platform.
The most unexpected acquisition was Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, which he took ownership of and became CEO of on October 27, 2022. With 9% of Twitter’s shares, he is also the company’s largest shareholder.
The sale wouldn’t be finalized for over six months, and when it was, Musk sacked the majority of the staff and the company’s top executives right away. Industry watchers are still perplexed about Musk’s plans and goals for his new acquisition as 2022 comes to a close.
5. Broadcom’s acquisition of VMWare
The corporate IT sector is preparing for what will happen next as Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMWare continues through due diligence. The deal’s announcement in May, according to Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, led customers to express their concerns about “multi-cloud, cloud-native apps, and pricing.” Tan noted this in a blog post.
While looking at Broadcom’s prior acquisitions for clues, industry analysts continue discussing such subjects as well as what this deal signifies for the future of the IT industry.
After the merger was announced, The Register said that “VMware consumers have seen Broadcom acquisitions emerge with lower profiles, slower innovation, and higher costs – a combination that makes them nervous about the future of the virtualization behemoth.”
Steve McDowell, senior analyst for data and storage at Moor Insights & Strategy, talked about the reasons behind the move’s uncertainty in the IT industry during an interview with The Forecast. According to him, there are worries that the acquisition may result in greater costs, a loss of customers, abandoned products, less innovation, and a “brain drain” of VMware talent.
40% of VMware customers expressed disapproval of the acquisition, according to the findings of a survey by S&P Global Market Intelligence. According to The Register’s story on the survey, “when the analyst crunched the data for current customers of both VMware and Broadcom, 56% voiced negative feelings.” More than 25 percent of respondents gave the agreement a “very bad” rating. The potential influence on software license terms and conditions was one of the reasons for the negative response.
IT professionals only desire simplicity, claimed McDowell.
6. Google Acquires FitBit
Fitbit was acquired by Google for $2.1 billion in 2020 after its wearOS operating system failed to unseat Apple’s watchOS. Fitbit has aided people all around the world in leading healthier, more active lives for more than ten years.
Being a clear pioneer in the field, Fitbit developed a thriving community of over 29 million active users by producing incredible wearable technology and engaging wellness experiences.
Although it’s unclear how Google would employ Fitbit’s technology, the agreement paves the way for the internet giant to begin making smartwatches under its own brand. The 29 million active Fitbit customers who currently use the health-tracking devices are also being absorbed by Google.
James Parks, CEO of Fitbit, believes that by working together, more individuals will have access to health and fitness. We’re sure that the combination of Fitbit’s cutting-edge technology, product know-how, and health and wellness innovation with the best of Google’s AI, software, and hardware will spur more competition in wearables and improve and make the next generation of devices more accessible.
7. HP to acquire Poly for $3.3B
In order to acquire Poly, a business that specializes in video and audio technology, HP has revealed that it would pay $1.7 billion in cash, with the transaction’s whole value coming to $3.3 billion when debt is taken into account. By the end of 2022, the transaction is anticipated to close.
Following HP’s purchase of Teradici, a business that provides remote desktop software, the acquisition is expected to hasten its entry into the hybrid work sector.
When headset manufacturer Plantronics purchased the 1990-founded company, which was first known as Polycom, in 2019, the two newly united businesses changed their name to Poly. Since then, the business has concentrated on offering enterprise-grade collaboration technologies, including conference room speakers and cameras, webcams, headphones, and software.
Enrique Lores, president and CEO of HP, stated that the advent of the hybrid workplace presents a once-in-a-generation chance to rethink how work is accomplished. The union of HP and Poly results in a market-leading array of hybrid work solutions. As we continue to fortify HP, Poly’s excellent technology, complementary go-to-market strategy, and experienced staff will support long-term profitable development.
8. Adobe’s $20 billion purchase of Figma
On September 15, Adobe announced a plan to pay $20 billion for the design platform Figma, making it their most expensive purchase to date.
The new asset, according to company representatives, will broaden their product line with the web-based multiplayer capabilities of Figma and speed up the web delivery of Adobe’s Creative Cloud technology.
The combination of Adobe and Figma is transformational and will speed up our vision for shared creativity, according to Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe.
However, the acquisition has a number of complexities, such as intended issues with the use of an acquired tool in conjunction with market eradication, learning curves for UX designers, and what, if any, software suites, if any, will become obsolete.
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9. Apple buys Credit Kudos, a UK financial startup
For an undisclosed sum, Apple is purchasing the UK-based banking business Credit Kudos. The most recent round of funding for Credit Kudos was $5 million ($6.5 million) in April 2020.
The deal, which was initially reported by the cryptocurrency-focused publication The Block, citing three sources close to the arrangement, was not confirmed by Credit Kudos or Apple.
Unlike traditional agencies, which often depend on older data like bank and utility bills to establish a profile, Credit Kudos employs machine learning and real-time data to provide a richer picture of a person’s credit score.
The company has also benefited from the recent wave of open banking legislation that have been implemented around the world. These regulations aim to open up consumer financial data through a collection of secure application programming interfaces (APIs). For services like risk evaluations and affordability analysis, Credit Kudos offers its clients access to this data.
It’s unknown what Apple wants to do with Credit Kudos, but the firm has made major investments in its fintech skills in recent years, including its mobile Apple Pay wallet and its Apple Card credit card, which is presently only offered in the US and was developed in collaboration with Goldman Sachs.
10. Pensando, a startup in edge computing, is purchased by AMD for $1.9 billion
Pensando had garnered a lot of interest since its 2017 launch, not least because the edge computing business was created by a group of former Cisco Systems employees and its supporters included former Cisco CEO John Chambers. The business had successfully secured an astonishing $313 million in venture capital.
Thus, the announcement by chip giant AMD that it would buy Pensando for $1.9 billion generated a lot of media attention on April 4. (The purchase was completed on May 26.)
According to AMD, Pensando’s distributed services platform will add a high-performance data processing unit and software stack to AMD’s data center product lineup. The AMD Data Center Solutions Group welcomed the founders and workers of Pensando.
11. For $800M, Snowflake purchases Streamlit
Developers and data scientists may now create apps using tools with streamlined data access and governance thanks to Snowflake’s $800 million acquisition of Streamlit.
Without needing to be front-end development experts, developers and data scientists can quickly and iteratively build and share data apps using Streamlit’s open-source platform. Over 8 million people have downloaded the platform, and over 1.5 million applications have been created utilizing it, according to Streamlit.
In a statement announcing the acquisition, Snowflake Co-Founder and President of Products Benoit Dageville stated that his company “believes in bringing together open standards and open source with industry-leading data governance and security.” We will be able to offer developers and data scientists a single, potent location to explore and interact with reliable data so they can create the next generation of data apps and influence the future of data science once Snowflake and Streamlit are combined.
12. Microsoft pays $19.7 billion to acquire voice recognition and AI expert Nuance
Nuance Communications, a maker of conversational AI and ambient intelligence solutions used in applications across a range of industries including health care, financial services, retail, and telecommunications, was acquired by Microsoft on March 4 after a successful merger.
In April 2021, Microsoft originally disclosed the $19.7 billion acquisition, one of the biggest in the company’s history.
The Cloud + AI Group at Microsoft now includes Nuance. Utilizing Nuance technology, cloud-based AI solutions for patient, employee, and consumer services are being developed.
13. With the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion, Intel will advance its foundry strategy
Increasing Intel’s manufacturing capacity, which includes constructing two new fabrication facilities in Ohio and Arizona as well as increasing manufacturing capacity in Europe, is a key element of the company’s long-term “IDM 2.0” strategy.
In order to further its goal to produce chips for other firms through Intel Foundry Services, Intel announced in February that it had agreed to pay $5.4 billion to acquire Israeli chipmaker Tower Semiconductor.
Tower runs a network of chip production facilities that will work in conjunction with Intel’s facilities in the United States and Asia.
Intel will acquire Tower’s portfolio of specialized technologies, including radio frequency, power, silicon-germanium, and industrial sensors, in addition to expanding its manufacturing capacity. Additionally, Tower’s vast IP and electronic design automation connections will be made available to Intel. The acquisition is expected to complete in the early 2023.
