So far, 2011 has remained active throughout the year at technological front. Considering all the impressive developments that took place and entry of numerous innovative gadgets, one would only start believing that 2011 ushered a new era in the technological world.
Throughout the year, numerous 'mergers and acquisitions (or M&A) took place. M&A are actually a process of buying, selling and combining different companies to create a new business entity that would share technical staff and other assets of an organization.
Recalling the year 2011, let’s have a look at some of the most prominent acquisitions that took place in 2011:
Microsoft and Skype: Among the biggest tech deals of 2011, Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype is one of the emblematic acquisitions. In a bid to accelerate efforts to transform real-time communications, Microsoft and Skype have taken this step. This move is likely to benefit Microsoft consumers as well as enterprises. Reviewers quote, the acquisition of Skype would make the Microsoft a renowned name on the Internet through its larger set of video sharing.
With the acquisition, Microsoft will first bring Skype to the nearly 35 million active users of its online gaming console Xbox Live and allow gamers to do video-chat while they play games or watch movies. Then, it will introduce Skype as an app on its latest Windows Phones and make it complementary to its PC software.
HP and Autonomy: Hewlett-Packard has closed its $12 billion buy of British software firm Autonomy in May 2011. With the proposed deal, which has been criticized by reviewer for being too pricey, HP has acquired 25,000 customer accounts.
HP’s new CEO Leo Apotheker believes that the latest acquisition will allow HP to administer and extract meaning from data to coerce insight, foresight as well as improved decision making.
SAP and SuccessFactors: In order to drive business growth, the tech giant SAP has reportedly acquired a software company SuccessFactors to deliver software over the internet. With the latest deal, the tech giant, SAP will pay $ 40 a share for acquiring all common stock of US-based SuccessFactors. It is expected that SAP is likely to become more aggressive into the cloud, through acquisition or internal development.
Reviewers quote, the latest acquisition will add momentum to SAP's capabilities as a leading provider of cloud applications, platforms and infrastructure.
Dell and Force10: In order to boost its networking offering, Dell acquired switch makerForce10 Networks. In other words, the acquisition of Force10's data center switches will augment Dell’s own data center server as well as storage range.
It is important to note that Force10 is a significant leader in high-performance, high-density switches for data centers and high-performance computing environments. The acquisition was closed in late summer for an undisclosed amount.
AT&T and T-Mobile: In a surprising twist AT&T has bought T-Mobile for $39 billion to give its rivals, a big competition. The deal was beneficial for both the firms as both the firms work on the same technology, of basic GSM wireless for their networks and handsets.
Benefits cited by AT&T about the acquisition include improved network capacity, output and quality; adding 46.5 million POPs to AT&T's planned LTE coverage, eventually covering 95% of the American population. With the deal AT&T is suppose to offer LTE to 34 million T-Mobile subscribers who otherwise wouldn't get it; and creating $8 billion in infrastructure investments on mobile technology over the next seven years.
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