In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, 2022 continues to be an unexpected and, at times terrible, year. However, one constant has been the continual stream of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) throughout the technology industry.
Worldwide Data data indicates that global technology M&A transactions had already approached $3 trillion by Q3, driven mostly by the technology, media, and telecommunications industries. Although nothing came close to Xilinx's $35 billion purchase of Advanced Micro Devices in 2020, Intuit paid $12 billion for Mailchimp, and Square paid a princely price — $29 billion — for Afterpay last year.
As for whether 2022 will sustain last year's pace, early indications show that significant acquisitions throughout the sector will continue to accelerate, with cybersecurity and collaboration software already proving to be hot areas.
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The following is a list of the largest corporate technology acquisitions made so far in 2022, in reverse chronological order:
Google Acquired Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant On March 8
Google will purchase cyber defense and response business Mandiant for $5.4 billion, enabling the cloud platform to provide an end-to-end security operations suite and consulting services.
"We think cybersecurity is a mission and one of the most critical of our age," Mandiant CEO Kevin Mandia wrote in a recent statement announcing the purchase. "Google Cloud is committed to our aim of bringing security to every company. We will collaborate to offer our knowledge and intelligence at scale via the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform, which will be integrated into Google Cloud's security portfolio."
Snowflake Acquired Streamlight For $800 Million On March 3
Snowflake, a data cloud firm, purchased Streamlight for $800 million. The acquisition enables developers and data scientists to create applications using tools that simplify data access and governance.
Streamlight's open-source platform enables developers and data scientists to rapidly and iteratively create and share data applications without the requirement for front-end programming expertise. According to Streamlight, the platform has been downloaded over 8 million times, and over 1.5 million apps have been developed.
Snowflake Co-Founder and also President of Products Benoit Dageville stated in a statement announcing the purchase, "We believe in combining open standards and open source with industry-leading data governance and security." "By combining Snowflake and Streamlight, we will be able to give developers and data scientists a centralized, powerful platform for discovering and collaborating on data they can trust to create next-generation data applications and define the future of data science."
Rakuten Symphony Purchased Robin.io On Feb 28
Rakuten Symphony, the Rakuten Group's newly created telco-focused subsidiary, has acquired Robin.io, a company that offers a Kubernetes platform specialized for storage and complicated network applications.
The two corporations did not reveal the acquisition's price. Since its inception, Robin.io has expanded beyond its initial storage emphasis to provide a more robust Kubernetes platform, enabling big telcos to automate 5G services apps on Kubernetes and orchestrate private 5G and LTE deployments.
"Robin.io's technical advancements over the many previous years will now have a far larger canvas on which to paint the vision for the industry's cloud-native transition. Our aim of providing simple-to-use, easy-to-deploy hyperscale automation is perfectly matched," stated Partha Seetala, CEO of Robin.io.
Cloudflare Buys Security Firm Area 1 Security On Feb 24
Cloudflare announced intentions to buy Area 1 Security for around $126 million in cash and equity.
Cloudflare's zero-trust security solutions are meant to protect against data loss, malware, and phishing attempts, even when workers are not connected to their workplace network or utilizing a VPN. This acquisition expands the company's email security offering.
Area 1 Security has created a device that intercepts email-based phishing assaults before reaching the recipient's mailbox. In 2021 alone, the business claims to have prevented over 40 million phishing attempts.
"To us, the future of Zero Trust involves an integrated, one-click approach to protecting all of an organization's apps, including its most ubiquitous cloud application, email," Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said in a statement. Together, we anticipate offering the industry's quickest, most effective, and most dependable email security."
Intel Will Purchase Tower Semiconductor On Feb 15
Intel announced plans to purchase Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion, providing more specialized manufacturing capabilities as it aims to capitalize on expanding semiconductor demand. The merger has been accepted by the boards of directors of both companies, but it is likely to take up to 12 months to clear regulatory hurdles.
Intel stated last year that it would join the foundry sector, manufacturing chips designed by customers. Tower has invested in several facilities to increase capacity for 200- and 300-millimeter chips over the previous several years. It caters to "fabless" firms that design semiconductors but outsource production and integrated device makers.
Pat Gelsinger, Intel's CEO, believes the move is a natural match for the company's objectives. "Tower's specialized technology portfolio, geographic reach, strong customer connections, and services-first culture will enable Intel to develop its foundry services and further our aim of being a significant worldwide supplier of foundry capacity," he said in a statement.
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Akamai Purchased Linode For $900 Million On Feb 15
Akamai has agreed to purchase Linode for roughly $900 million. Linode is a supplier of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platforms. According to reports, Akamai anticipates Linode to generate around $100 million in revenue in FY22.
Linode, founded in 2003, has positioned itself as a public cloud alternative to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Unlike many of its rivals, Linode claims to have raised no outside capital and has "effectively ran a profitable company from [its] beginning."
"The chance to integrate Linode's developer-friendly cloud computing capabilities with Akamai's market-leading edge platform and security services is transformative for Akamai," said Tom Leighton, CEO, and co-founder of Akamai. "Akamai has been a frontiersperson in the periphery computing space for over two decades, and we are pleased to venture into a new chapter in our history by developing a unique cloud platform for developing, running, and securing applications from the cloud to the edge."
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