13, June, 2016 was the day that Microsoft shook the tech world by buying popular professional networking platform LinkedIn for a whopping $26.2 billion price tag, making it the biggest acquisition in its history.
The recent times have seen the acquisition rate in the tech industry escalating to a new high. Almost every other day, we read the news of an XYZ company being acquired by another for a whopping ABC amount.

There are a number of reasons that companies take the path of acquisitions. While some do it for diversifying their businesses, escalate growth rate, others do it for eliminating competition. The historic LinkedIn acquisition by Microsoft made us think about some of the biggest technology acquisitions that the industry has witnessed till date. Here, we present to you 12 of the biggest technology acquisitions.

1) Dell Inc acquires EMC


Amount- $67 billion


Year- 2015


Topping the list of biggest acquisitions till date, is the Dell Inc acquisition of EMC for $67 billion. The deal saw Michael S. Dell, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell, MSD Partners and Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing coming together to acquire EMC Corporation, while agreeing to maintain VMware as a publicly-traded company.

Dell bought EMC with an intention of leveraging on EMC's growing dominance in the storage devices market and expand its product lineup. The deal helped Dell send out a strong message to its long-standing competitor Hewlett-Packard Co.

2) Avago Technologies acquires Broadcom


Amount- $37 billion


Year- 2015


The second deal on the list is Avago Technologies' clever acquisition of its rival chipmaker Broadcom in a huge $37 billion deal. The company which makes semiconductors for the cellular, automotive and defense industries made the expensive purchase in May last year.

The combined company after acquisition is based out of Singapore and is currently the third-largest US semiconductor-maker in terms of revenue, finishing just behind Intel Corp and Qualcomm.

3) Microsoft acquires LinkedIn


Amount- $26.2 billion


Year- 2016


Microsoft, the software giant, made a major announcement this year. The US headquartered company bought out LinkedIn, a social networking platform, aimed at connecting working professionals with one another, at a whopping $26.2 billion price tag.

Microsoft and LinkedIn Corporation entered into a definitive agreement under which the tech giant will acquired LinkedIn at the price of $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 billion. This was inclusive of LinkedIn's net cash.

4) Facebook acquires WhatsApp


Amount- $22 billion


Year- 2014


In a deal that figuratively took the social media industry by shock, social media giant Facebook bought the popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp for $22 billion in the year 2014. Facebook decided to pay WhatsApp $4.59 billion in cash and 177,760,669 shares in the company.

In a statement given back then, the social networking giant had said that the acquisition was in line with Facebook and WhatsApp's shared mission of bringing more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core internet services efficiently and affordably.

5) VeriSign acquires Network Solutions


Amount- $21 billion


Year- 2000


The $21 billion deal saw Network Solutions, one of the leading provider of Internet domain name registrations, being acquired by US's leading provider of e-commerce and e-mail security of that time. The deal which many in the industry call as a surprise deal saw VeriSign buying Network Solutions in an all-stock deal.

The deal gave VeriSign an invaluable access to Network Solutions' 8.1-million-member subscriber base all over the world, which the company ultimately leveraged to sell its other products.

6) HP acquires Compaq


Amount- $18.6 billion


Year- 2002


Hewlett-Packard and Compaq initially began their journey as competitors, but when Compaq sales started floundering in the early 2000s, HP decided to bail out the company by acquiring it for a good $18.6 billion.

The Hewlett-Packard and Compaq deal has been able to retain its crown of being the biggest completed computer hardware deal till date. Interestingly, the deal was first announced in June 2001 at a higher price tag, but HP eventually locked in the deal at $18.6 billion in May 2002.

7) HP acquires EDS


Amount- $13.9 billion


Year- 2008


Here's another Hewlett-Packard acquisition on the list. HP bought Texas headquartered Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) in the year 2008 in a $13.9 billion deal. Founded by Ross Perot, the multinational company came into forefront for developing a system for that allowed bank machines to take in money. HP decided to purchase EDS for the company's wider IT services business that helped it to widen its horizons.

8) Symantec acquires Veritas


Amount- $13.5 billion


Year- 2005


The year 2005 saw security software firm Symantec purchasing Veritas, a storage management company, for $13.5 billion in what is regarded as one of the largest deal of its kind. The all-stock deal was valued at $13.5bn, based on Symantec’s stock price of $27.38 at market at the closing of 15th December, 2004.

Symantec was a master in anti-virus and network security applications back then, while Veritas was an important player in the data backup and storage software markets.

By acquiring Veritas, Symantec aimed to expand its combined revenue base and create a company with "greater financial scale and resources". But, unfortunately that wasn't the case. The year 2015 saw Symantec selling its data storage unit Veritas to Carlyle Group LP for $7.4 billion, which is almost half the $13.5 billion amount Symantec paid for acquiring Veritas in 2005.

9) Google buys Motorola Mobility


Amount- $12.5 billion


Year- 2012


Tech giant Google made a significant purchase in 2012 when it bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. It was said that the main reason behind the purchase was that Google wanted to lay it hands on Motorola's rich patent portfolio. Once that was achieved, the tech giant decided to forgo of Motorola's handset business that had been losing a significant amount of money every quarter since its purchase in 2012.

In 2014, Google was finally able to sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo, giving the Chinese smartphone manufacturer an opportunity to have a massive presence in the United States mobile market. During the deal, Google decided to retain the ownership of majority of Motorola's patents, and only 2,000 patents and a license on the remaining patents were passed on to Lenovo.

10) NXP acquires Freescale


Amount- $11.8 billion


Year- 2015


Netherland based chipmaker company NXP Semiconductors NV bought its United States based competitor Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. in 2015 in a $11.8 billion deal. The transaction, which took place in cash and stock, was aimed at expanding NXP's market share in chips for cars and reducing costs.

The deal helped both the companies cut their costs by merging efforts in products for the automotive industry and combining manufacturing. The deal was finally approved in September 2015 by the European Commission.

11) Oracle acquires PeopleSoft


Amount- $10.3 billion


Year- 2005


In a deal that stretched over 18 long months, Oracle finally managed to buy its rival business software developer
PeopleSoft in $10.3 billion in cash in 2005. Though the initial offer was made in 2003, the deal took a good 18 months to materialise because some higher authorities at PeopleSoft felt that Oracle was only buying PeopleSoft for its promising connect with the application software customers and was not at all interested in supporting its products.  But, finally they gave-in in 2005 when the purchase price offered was raised.

12) HP acquires Autonomy


Amount- $10.2 billion


Year- 2011


The third Hewlett-Packard Co. acquisition on the list, HP bought Autonomy Corp., which develops search software, in a $10.3 billion deal in the year 2011. The shareholders of Autonomy received $42.11 a share from the Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard in the deal.

HP bought Autonomy as a part of its plan of focusing more on being a software and services company and not be completely dependent on its hardware businesses.
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