Technology, led by Artificial intelligence (AI), is swiftly reshaping businesses and the lives of people across the length and breadth of the globe. The previous year brought unusual changes in every sector and industry which bank largely on technology. The year changed our outlook towards the future. It has paved the way for tech companies to firm up their expansion plans.
Here are some of the key mergers and acquisitions that took place in the initial months of 2021, setting the tone for technological advancements in the months to come. Global tech M&A had seen total deal to the tune of $634.1 billion. Is 2021 is set for to match the rally? Let’s see major deals
1. Hitachi takes over GlobalLogic for $9.6B
Japanese conglomerate Hitachi announced it was obtaining tech services outsourcing company GlobalLogic in a $9.6 billion deal that included repayment of debt at the end of March.
2. UiPath acquires Cloud Elements
ServiceNow made robotic process automation (RPA) acquisition, RPA vendor UiPath made annexation of its own, picking up Denver-based firm Cloud Elements for an undisclosed amount.
3. ServiceNow gains Indian RPA company Intellibot
ServiceNow moved to add more robotic process automation (RPA) capacity to its platform by accumulating the Indian startupIntellibot for an undisclosed price. ServiceNow intends to build Intellibot’s abilities into its Now Platform to enable customers to automate more business processes.
4. Aveva completes $5B OSIsoft deal
British industrial software professional Aveva concluded a $5 billion acquisition of its US rival OSIsoft in March. The deal was initially advertised last summer and passed regulatory approval in March 2021. Based in California, OSIsoft is part of SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund portfolio and concentrates on real-time industrial operational data.
5. VMware acquires Mesh7
VMware announced plans to acquire security vendor Mesh7 for an undisclosed amount. Based in Sunnyvale, CA, Mesh7 Specialists in API security for shared cloud environments. The Mesh7 team will assemble the Tanzu unit at VMware to work on service mesh security.
6. Dropbox obtains DocSend for $165M
In one of the major notable deals of the year, cloud file storage professional Dropbox is procuring DocSend, the secure document sharing company and fellow San Francisco native, for $165 million in cash.
7. Square acquires streaming platform Tidal for $297M
Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Square declared it’s acquiring a bulk ownership stake in the music streaming platform Tidal in a startling $297 million stock-and-cash deal. Tidal was established in Norway in 2014, but was put on the map in 2015 when it was bought by American rapper and royalty Jay Z.
8. Xero secures Planday for €183.5M
Small-business focused accounting software maker Xero acquired Planday for a mix of cash and shares that could ultimately reach a price of €183.5 million.
9. Okta to acquire Auth0 for $6.5B
Okta revealed plans to acquire fellow identity management authority Auth0 for $6.5 billion in an all-stock deal. That price embodies a significant premium, as Auth0 was last valued at $1.92 billion privately after raising $120 million in July.
10. Atlassian obtains Chartio
Atlassian stated that it’s acquiring popular data visualization medium Chartio for an undisclosed amount. The Australian software-as-a-service company will look to consolidate Chartio’s collaborative dashboards and reports into its own analytics tools and to give users of means like Jira and Confluence better perspicacity into their data.
11. Cision procures Brandwatch for $450M
The UK media panorama shifted in February when media monitoring and PR database Cision acquired Brandwatch, the online consumer intelligence, and social media listening platform, for $450 million in a merged cash and stock deal.
12. Autodesk acquires Innovyze for $1B
Autodesk is acquiring software maker Innovyze for $1 billion. The Portland, OR-based Innovyze produces software to model, fabricate and analyze water infrastructure. Autodesk concentrates on industrial CAD software for 3D modeling and is famous with architects and engineers
13. CrowdStrike purchased Humio for $400M
Hot on the heels of the SentinelOne acquisition of Scalyr, CrowdStrike announced it would acquire another logging professional, Humio, for $400 million. Humio’s unique selling point has always been unlimited logging, allowing customers to collect as much as they want for a better picture of how their systems are working.
14. Workday to obtain Peakon for $700M
HR and finance software authority Workday announced plans to purchase employee feedback platform Peakon for $700 million in cash. Organized in Denmark in 2014, Peakon had raised $68 million in funding to date.
15. SAP to acquire Signavio
German software firm SAP stated it’s acquiring fellow German firm Signavio, which practices in cloud-native enterprise business process intelligence and management for an undisclosed fee. Signavio was last valued at $400 million after a $177 million funding round in July 2019.
16. vCitrix purchased Wrike for $2.25 billion
Virtualization specialist Citrix announced the planned acquisition of collaboration software maker Wrike for $2.25 billion in cash. Citrix already has a digital platform called Workspace and will look to fold the Wrike team and technology into that product.
17. Cisco amassed Acacia for $4.5 billion
Cisco started the year by picking up the optical technology firm Acacia for $4.5 billion. Originally announced in July 2019, there was a lot of back and forth over the venture, with Cisco paying an additional $1.9 billion to get the possession over the line.
18. Qualcomm to possess Nuvia for $1.4 billion
Hot on the heels of a burst of semiconductor merger at the end of 2020, Qualcomm announced it was acquiring Nuvia for around $1.4 billion.
Big deals, especially involving the silicon discoveries and collaborations software, are flooding the techn market, gripping and grasping everything under its domain. How the rest of the year passes by, what more acquisitions it leverages, is a matter to wait and watch.
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