• Home
• /
• Tech

The top 10 tech acquisitions in history (so far)

Dubai - How far did the Dell-EMC merger outdo the rest of the field?

After 10 months, the biggest technology merger in history is about to come into fruition.
Computer giants Dell and EMC are set to finalise its mega $63.4 billion (Dh233 billion) deal. That's bigger than the government expenditures of all but 48 countries in the Central Intelligence Agency's The World Factbook.
The final hurdle, approval from China's Ministry of Commerce, clears the way for a partnership between Dell and EMC, which has $54.9 billion (2016) and $24.8 billion (2015) of revenue, respectively, aside from employing 101,800 and 50,000 people.
The merged entity will be known as Dell Technologies and Dell founder, chairman and CEO Michael Dell will be its chairman and CEO.
Since this is the biggest-ever deal in the technology industry, how far is it from the rest of the field? Here are the rest in the sector's top 10 M&As (enclosed figures in 2016 terms).
 

10. Hewlett-Packard acquires Autonomy, 2011, $10.3 billion ($11.02 billion)
HP is known for acquisitions, but this one didn't exactly pan out the way it wanted to. While unanimously approved by both companies' boards, it didn't sit well with critics, especially when it was described in not-so-flattering ways such as "absurdly high", a "botched strategy shift" and "chaotic".
Autonomy was HP's biggest buy since splashing $17.6 billion for Compaq in 2002, a high price to pay - both literally and figuratively. Over a year later, HP admitted that it indeed overpaid for Autonomy. Both entities threw accusations at each other on who's allegedly at fault for the company's troubles, with executives from both firms getting the boot in the process. This deal has been considered one of HP's worst - if not the worst - deals.
 

9. Oracle buys PeopleSoft, 2005, $10.3 billion ($12.69 billion)
It took a year-and-a-half of courting before Oracle finally landed PeopleSoft. Oracle made multiple bids from $7.7 billion to as high as $13 billion, but it ran into resistance from PeopleSoft's board, as well as a lawsuit threat from the US Department of Justice on the grounds that any deal may break anti-trust laws.
PeopleSoft finally gave in in December 2004, but with a heavier price: Over half of its 11,000 employees were given the pink slip by Oracle - via express mail.
 

8. Google acquires Motorola Mobility, 2011, $12.5 billion ($13.37 billion)
Google's largest-ever acquisition ever tops the list of about 170 take-overs it has consummated since it was born. But here's the weird thing about it: Only after two years, Google sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
Now before you get weirded out, the Internet giant had a fairly simple - and strategic reason - for this string of moves: It turns out that it was only after Motorola's considerable arsenal of patents in order to shield itself from disputes, mainly from Apple and Microsoft, as at that time its Android OS was under fire in various lawsuits. To be fair, Google CEO Larry Page did seem to drop a hint on this acquisition.
 

7. Symantec buys Veritas, 2005, $13.5 billion ($16.63 billion)
This deal was Symantec's biggest and made Veritas the fifth-biggest software firm globally, but was criticised because the two companies serve different markets.
It did, though, last for a decade. But in late-2014, Symantec announced that it would split into two entities: The software security core would remain as Symantec, while the information management arm would be known as Veritas Technologies Corporation. The marriage eventually ended when Symantec sold Veritas to The Carlyle Group in August last year. Symantec's biggest gain? It gained access to Veritas' Fortune 500 clients.
 

6. HP acquires EDS, 2008, $13.9 billion ($15.54 billion)
This acquisition gave HP combined revenues of $118.4 billion and a Fortune 500 ranking of 9 in 2008. It also swung the axe on 24,600 former EDS staff. At that time, then-HP CEO Mark Hurd wanted to compete with IBM so badly he bid $18 billion for PricewaterhouseCoopers' consulting business. HP dropped the bid and, guess what, IBM got PwC, stoking Hurd's interest in EDS.
In 2009, the EDS unit became known as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP's global business and technologies arm. It raked in revenue of $7.4 billion in 2015.
 

5. Facebook snags WhatsApp, 2014, $19 billion ($19.31 billion)
In one of recent memory's biggest acquisitions, many people were led to ask, what the hell was Mark Zuckerberg thinking? (Remember: Facebook bought Instagram for "just" $1 billion in 2012.)
Apparently, the reach of WhatsApp. Aside from getting a widely-popular messaging app (so what if Facebook already has Messenger?), the deal also brought, at that time, WhatsApp's over 450 million users to Facebook's then-1.278 billion users. Guess what? WhatsApp users just pipped the one-billion mark in February this year. Great job, 'Zuck.
 

4. Microsoft nets LinkedIn, 2016, $26 billion
Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date and under CEO Satya Nadella is still pending approval and is expected to be consummated by the end of 2016. Analysts see that Microsoft will be able integrate its Office products into LinkedIn's vast professional network. LinkedIn will remain independent, with Jeff Weiner to continue being CEO.
Nadella was so ecstatic about this deal that he actually even compared this deal to... Minecraft.
 

3. Softbank buys ARM, 2016, $32.3 billion
Well, looks like 2016 is the year of big acquisitions, and Japan's SoftBank joined in the party; the ARM deal pips its previous $22 billion takeover of Sprint in 2013.
While this actually makes sense for SoftBank's push into the Internet of Things market, there's another smart reason for this deal: The Brexit vote resulted in the value of the pound plunging, paving the way for an opportunity for SoftBank to get ARM for a relatively low cost.
 

2. HP buys Compaq, 2001, $33.6 billion ($45.68 billion)
As both companies were struggling at that time, this massive deal was greatly questioned and would go on as, arguably, one of the worst deals in history. It came to a point that analysts said that HP was overvaluing Compaq.
It was also a controversial deal, having been approved by HP shareholders by the narrowest of margins and rumours of vote-buying. The deal also claimed a high-profile casualty: Then chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina was sacked in February 2005, after the deal did not, as expected, live up to its billing.
 

1. Dell acquires EMC, 2016, $63.4 billion
There's only one thing we can say about this gargantuan deal: It's almost twice No.2's value. While indeed a unanimous decision, time - as always - will tell if this was a wise move or not.
- alvin@khaleejtimes.com