Cash-rich tech giants are showing signs of a willingness to open their coffers to acquire startups and rivals. The tech-focused section of our sister blog Dealscape highlighted data
from the 451 Group showing conditions have stabilized to some degree
for
tech acquirers and potential targets alike.
Leading the way this quarter was Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL), which surprised the tech sector in April saying
it would acquire Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) for $7.4 billion in cash. It's also working on the smaller side. Last week, Oracle said it was
acquiring the intellectual property assets of Conformia Software Inc. Most recently Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) said it's
acquiring software vendor Wind River Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:WIND) for $884 million. In their efforts to snap up market share, some rivals are stepping on each other's toes as well. That's apparent with Data Domain Inc. (NASDAQ:DDUP), which on May 20 received a $1.5 billion offer from NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP). It later received a competing $1.9 billion bid from EMC Corp. (NYSE:EMC).
The M&A numbers are vastly different from last year's totals, but 451 Group found in a survey of 60 corporate development execs at tech firms that a recent uptick in deals is likely to continue. The blog quoted 451 Group analyst Brenon Daly saying, "if not bullish, the projections in our midyear survey are much less bearish than they were in our previous survey last December."
While valuations have gone up a bit, there's still much
squabbling around deal tables. Just look at Broadcom Corp.'s (NASDAQ:BRCM) pursuit of Emulex Corp. (NYSE:ELX). -
Baz HiralalDealscape: Tech M&A on the rebound
Join Corporate Dealmaker's LinkedIn forum
Juergen Lasowski
And the winners are...
