A year in review
Last year was monumental in terms of mergers and acquisitions. The top five merger deals across the world in 2015 include the following:
- Pfizer-Allergan at $187.7 billion
- Anheuser-Busch-SABMiller at $120.3 billion
- Royal Dutch Shell-BG Group at $81.2 billion
- Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable at $77.8 billion
- Dell-EMC at $63.3 billion.
For the technology sector, the Dell-EMC merger not only was the most costly merger in the industry's history, but also awed the global market in ranking at number five, with industry giants such as Pfizer and Anheuser-Busch coming out on top.
Tech industry M&As in 2015 did not beat the mammoth amount set in the 2000 dot-com boom. However 2015 did exceed the records set in the 15 years since then. Much of the drive behind these deals include the need to consolidate and foster aging tech organizations. Also, now is the time to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs. Surprisingly, major brands like Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon did not exceed an M&A value of $1 billion this year, nor did leaders such as Oracle or IBM.
"It is true that prices for many potential acquisition targets were simply too high, particularly for companies like IBM and Cisco with depressed stock prices," Shira Ovide at Bloomberg wrote. "It could be boards were fearful they'd face fuming shareholder activists if they struck big acquisitions. Yet history has shown even some of the tech companies built on homegrown products can drastically improve their fortunes through acquisitions. In just one example, Google bought Android, YouTube, DoubleClick and AdMob all crucial foundations for the current Alphabet."
With the help of a skilled M&A advisor, your tech company can find, negotiate and sign a merger or acquisition deal that achieves your organization's growth goals. Contact us today to learn more about how working with an advisor can help your company reach the next level of success.