Biggest Tech Acquisitions of 21st century

The M&A deals can predict about the tech scenario over the year. During the year 2010 companies craved for storage, with Dell, EMC, HP offering huge amount of money on storage manufacturing companies. The storage companies help people to build their next generation data centres and devices for cloud computing. In the year 2011 the big companies have laid their hands on mobile and telecommunication companies. In this year there were many big deals in enterprise software as the big old companies try to move into the hardware and semiconductors manufacturing markets. Big fish swallows the small fish. This is what is happening in the business world. Better , larger and more profitable  companies are taking over the smaller companies. According to the reports the tech acquisitions have most of the times been successful. Google itself has taken over 20 companies till date

So here we have the top 10 biggest tech acquisitions of the 21^st century.

10. CenturyLink paid $2.5 billion to Savvis to get into cloud computing and give competition to 

CenturyLink lay it basis in the year 1995. It is the third largest Telecommunication company in India and it got merged with Qwest in April. Century link is a provider of high speed internet, phone and TV services.Savvis is known to be the industry leader in Enterprise cloud computing. On April 2007 century link got his hands on Savvis with a buy out price of 2.5 billion US dollar. According to the agreement the people who own Savvis’s share will get $30 for each share in cash and $ 10 in shares of CenturyLink common stock

9. Qualcomm  gave up $3.1 billion for Atheros to move towards the WIi-Fi sector

This company is a manufacturer of semiconductor devices for communication purposes. It was founded in 1998 and Qualcomm took over this company for a price value of 3.5 billion US dollars on 24 May 2011. Now it is known by the name of Qualcomm Atheros. Now Qualcomm is known to produce chips required in Wi-Fi devices.

8. SAP paid $3.4 billion to SuccessFactors for helping it move to the clouds

Success factors provide cloud based Human Capital Management solution. This multinational software enterprise got merged with SAP AG on 3 December 2011. It was also said that SuccessFactors will remain an independent company. SuccessFactors is a cloud based industry that helps other companies to evaluate and track their employees.

7. Broadcom gave $3.7 billion to acuire Net Logic for capitalizing the growing use of Internet data

NetLogic is a Networking Chip making company. Broadcom made its biggest acquisition by acquiring NetLogic for 3.7 billion US dollars in September 2011. From the manufacturer of chips for TV set up boxes and many other appliances it has moved to manufacturing Networking gear chips too after the deal.

6. Western Digital took over Hitachi’s hard drive business for 4.3 billion US dollars

Hitachi was founded in 1910nand is a Japanese multinational company known to produce LCDs, hard disk drives, information storage media, batteries etc. The deal for Western Digital for acquiring Hitachi was announced in March and the deal is yet to be finished. According to the deal Hitachi Ltd will own 10% of Western Digital shares. WD bought this hard drive making company to compete against its main rival Seagate

5. Applied Materials acquires Varian for 4.9 billion US dollar, a semiconductor chip making company

Applied Material announced the successful acquisition of Varian on November, 2011 for 4.9 US billion dollars. Varian is known to produce semiconductor chips and has developed technology for making LEDs and solar panels. Applied has become the leading supplier of equipments and services needed in transistor technology. It has expanded Apllied’s market with new opportunities making 1.5 billion US dollar per year.

4. Texas Instruments offered $6.5 billion for National Semiconductor to Take up the market for Analog Processor

National Semiconductors is an American semiconductors manufacturer and specializes in analog devices and subsystems. The products manufactured by National Semiconductors include display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers, management circuits, data conversion solutions and communication interface products. Texas Instrument has signed an agreement to take over its competitor and semiconductors manufacturer National semiconductors for 6.5 billion US dollars in April.

3. Microsoft bid $8.5 billion for Skype to put video and voice chatting everywhere

Microsoft entered into an agreement for acquiring Skype for 8.5 billion US dollar. The agreement has got its approval from both the company’s directors. This deal has increased the accessibility of voice and video chatting. This acquisition will expand Skype’s all over known brand and its networked platform, and enhanced Microsoft’s image of communication services and products. The deal closed in October and was announced in May.

2. HP took over Autonomy for $10.2 billion to make a bigger change into enterprise software

HP is not making much money in its hardware business especially in the production of PC’s as well as printers. It is trying to evolve itself into a software and services company. Autonomy is known as Software Company which produces software to help companies to manage data and files of the organisation. The deal was closed for 10.2 billion US dollar in October.

1. Google offered $12.5 billion for Motorola to give patent protection for Android

The deal for Google acquiring Motorola was announced in August for 12.5 billion US dollars. Motorola is a leading manufacturer of mobiles, TV set top boxes. This acquisition will help Google to enhance the Android ecosystem. Google will tie with Motorola TV set up boxes into Google TV and have plans to run IPTV service.