2010 Technology M&A Trends and Rankings – How Active Have the Tech Giants Been?
Google’s 2010 M&A activity has been proceeding at a spectacular space as we revealed last week. This week, we’re using CB Insights’ M&A data to look at the 2010 acquisition activity of many of the most notable and/or largest technology companies in the world. As you can see, there are many interesting observations that emerge from the year-to-date technology M&A figures.
Below is the 2010 data by tech company and some of our early observations.
Google is the most acquisitive technology company in the land
As is obvious from above, Google’s acquisition pace is significantly greater – almost double – of the next most acquisitive tech company, IBM. Google’s mix of acquisitions as we’ll cover in a future analysis is quite varied with them doing larger acquisitions ($100 million plus) and also doing smaller talent acquisitions (the popularly coined “acqu-hire”).
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Microsoft has done zero (yes – zero) acquisitions in 2010
Although they closed some deals in 2010 (Sentillion for example), these were all announced in 2009. As of September 24, 2010, Microsoft has yet to announce a single acquisition in 2010. Are there big plans for Q4 2010 or will this be a year that Microsoft focuses more on organic growth in lieu of inorganic, acquired growth?
Is Facebook becoming a technology acquisition powerhouse?
On a purely numbers basis, Facebook has jumped ahead of many of the tech bellwethers a la Cisco, Oracle, etc. Of course, many of Facebook’s acquisitions are of the small tuck-in variety recruiting talent or interesting capabilities for the social networking giant. So although the acquisition activity of Facebook puts them high in the league tables on an activity basis, the size of the franchises that the likes of Oracle, Dell, Cisco and Apple are acquiring are much larger than those of Facebook.
HP – Home of billion dollar M&A deals
Unlike Facebook with it’s smaller, fold-in acquisitions, HP has been not just acquisitive but doing large acquisition deals (four over $1 billion) with the aim to bring on technology, products and services that will move the proverbial needle at the behemoth tech company.
Cisco – A technology M&A stalwart slows down
Cisco which has historically figured into technology M&As most active players looks to be taking a breather of sorts in 2010 with only four acquisitions.
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Microsoft Has Announced Zero M&A Transactions in 2010 – Is Organic Growth the Focus or Is Something Larger Brewing? » CB Insights – Blog said,
[...] case you missed it in our post comparing the 2010 M&A activity of the major tech companies, it’s worth highlighting that Microsoft has announced zero acquisitions year-to-date in 2010. [...]
What Google can teach the newspapers about innovation « excapite said,
[...] Google is the most acquisitive technology company in the land – CB Insights [...]
85% of Technology Acquisitions by Tech Giants are of Private Companies » CB Insights – Blog said,
[...] week, we detailed the year-to-date technology M&A activity of the technology giants with Google leading the acquisition lead tables. This week, we wanted to [...]
75% of Google’s Acquisitions are Venture Capital or Angel Investor Financed » CB Insights – Blog said,
[...] In the last five years, Google acquisitions have tended to be VC or angel investor-backed with 3 of every 4 acquisitions completed by Google having received external financing. As we’d previously noted, Google has been on an acquisition tear this year relative to its own historical pace as well as relative to its technology company brethren/competitors. [...]
Microsoft Reveals 15 Acquisitions on Heels of CB Insights’ M&A Data » CB Insights – Blog said,
[...] week’s technology M&A roundup in which we revealed Microsoft had announced zero acquisitions in 2010 resulted in some questions [...]
Rumors of Adobe-Microsoft merger excite stocks | Corporation Merger said,
[...] of the software giant’s failed takeover of Yahoo earlier this year, Microsoft has netted zero acquisitions. Meanwhile, competitors Apple and Google have made five and 23, respectively. Merger and [...]
Microsoft acquisition of Adobe ‘unlikely’ | Trading Desk | Financial Post said,
[...] reality has been quite the opposite, giving Mr. Pritchard some basis for being coloured skeptical. Buying Adobe would be, after all, [...]
Would you choose to develop for Microsoft platform these days? « Webnomena said,
[...] activity – 0 by Microsoft this year- large non Microsoft platform friendly technology companies buys smaller ones. But [...]
Tech company acquisitions continue to skyrocket for 2010 | Corporation Merger said,
[...] so far this year. Google’s collection has been a mixture of small and large companies, but the activity suggests the company’s forward trajectory, especially with the growth and influence of [...]
Adobe CEO puts Microsoft takeover rumour to rest | Trading Desk | Financial Post said,
[...] Microsoft would run the Redmond, Wash.-based Windows maker upwards of US$15-billion in a year when the company has yet to make a single acquisition in the first place. While one could argue that Microsoft was just saving up for an extra-large [...]
Big things expected from Microsoft | Trading Desk | Financial Post said,
[...] order to do that, Mr. Kanade believes Microsoft will have to make a acquisition. Having made zero so far this year, he believes the next one will be [...]
Google’s erfolgreiche M&A Strategie « Success and Failure said,
[...] der Blog von Cbinsights.com berichtet, hat google 2010 bereits 23 neue Firmen acquiriert und ist damit unangefochtener [...]
6 Things To Do For Your Channel Partners When You Buy A Company « Cloudbridge Consultings's Blog said,
[...] saw a very interesting CBInsights article recently here, comparing the acquisition activities of major technology providers. And we weren’t that [...]
Success & Failure » Google’s erfolgreiche M&A Strategie said,
[...] der Blog von Cbinsights.com berichtet, hat google 2010 bereits 23 neue Firmen acquiriert und ist damit unangefochtener [...]
What industries are dominated by a single large company that buys any new, successful entrants? - Quora said,
[...] Microsoft, Grassroots Business F… Here's an overview of the major tech acquisitions in 2010: http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/m…Top acquirers:Google – 23 acquisitionsIBM – 12HP – 7Facebook – 6Oracle – 5Apple – 5Diving into the [...]
Bing & Google Buying Search Market Share: Preloaded Toolbar War MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing said,
[...] years, Microsoft has seen a slow increase in their acquisitions – 2010 showing 0, with silent M&A activity which was labeled small in MS eyes, and therefore not officially announced. The 2011 Yahoo merger [...]
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