Mergers and acquisitions in 2017 hardly got any hit with only a few to mention, such as Verizon acquired Yahoo, Apple purchased Shazam and some other deals clutching the main headlines. Deloitte has forecasted that Mergers and Acquisitions would speed up in 2018 mostly driven by technology acquisitions.
It has already been half of 2018 and some of the big announcements have already caught the attention and surprised the market. The acquisitions and mergers are not only signing a piece of paper. It allows influencers and industry leaders to watch and forecast where these companies will be heading to and how it will affect consumers in the years to come.
Let’s have a look at few of these accusations and mergers took place in 2018 until now.
1. Microsoft Acquires GitHub
Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion, leaving the developers community shocked and somewhat disappointed. The former CEO of Xamarin, Nat Friedman will overtake as GitHub’s CEO. The agreement for the acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2018, subject to regulatory review and customary closing conditions.
2. Adobe Intends to Acquire Magento
Adobe announced to acquire Magento Commerce, a well renowned commerce platform for $1.68 billion. The purpose is to give customers enhanced capabilities to complete transactions within the e-commerce websites and digital ads developed on online customer experiences and Adobe. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018 fiscal year, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
3. Semantic Machines Acquired by Microsoft
Microsoft acquired AI startup Semantic Machines in May 2018. Semantic Machines, a startup that focuses on conversational AI, will help in enhancing the Microsoft’s smart assistant Cortana. Microsoft explained in a blog post, “With the acquisition of Semantic Machines, we will establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces.”
4. Oracle Acquires Datascience.com
Oracle signed an agreement to acquire Datascience.com, a platform that unifies data science tools, infrastructure and projects in a fully administered workplace. It will enable customers to harness the single data science platform to leverage big data and machine learning for predictive learning and enhanced business results, the executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Platform, Amit Zavery said.
5. Google Acquires Velostrata
Google acquired an Israeli startup Velostrata for an amount not yet revealed. The company specializes in enterprise cloud services that helps companies to migrate their data to the cloud. The company will join Google Cloud team in Tel Aviv office. According to VP Engineering at Google Cloud, Eyal Manor in a blog post said, “The acquisition of the company will add to our broad portfolio of migration tools to support enterprises in their journey to the cloud.”
6. Salesforce Acquires MuleSoft
The biggest deal ever made by Salesforce in March acquired MuleSoft for $6.5 billion in cash. MuleSoft focusses on software integration that went public in March 2017. Some of the companies like ASOS and HSBC for API management utilize the technology to combine applications across increasingly complex IT environments.
7. Amazon buys Ring
Amazon has acquired smart doorbell company “Ring for more than $1 billion according to reports. A US-based companies manufacture doorbells and record live videos and sending it back to client’s smartphones. The company has raised $209 million of funding as per CrunchBase.
8. PayPal Acquires iZettle
The world’s popular and renowned payment gateway PayPal acquired iZettle for $2.2 billion, allowing it to have a point of sale technology solution to add to its portfolio. iZettle is a Swedish Fintech firm, who filed for an IPO expected to value the company at $1.1 billion, but nine days before the news broke that PayPal was acquiring iZettle.
9. Cisco Acquires BroadSoft
Maryland based company BroadSoft was acquired for $1.9 billion in February by Cisco. BroadSoft went public back in 2010 that specializes in cloud-based calling and contact center solutions. Cisco on other hand wants the technology to be deployed into existing hardware endpoints, message, calling, meetings and services portfolio.
10. ServiceNow Acquires Parlo and VendorHawk
SaaS provider of IT helpdesk solutions Service. Now had acquired two companies Parlo and VendorHawk. Parlo is a silicon valley based AI startup, while VendorHawk develops software for tracking SaaS subscription.
Parlo will be integrated into ServiceNow’s platform to facilitate customer automate their business processes. VendorHawk, a cloud solution will allow ServiceNow to offer a diverse range of Software Asset Management Capabilities.
