M&A Activity in Tech Sector Is Booming, Shows No Sign of Slowing

Last year’s record spending came in more than 25% higher than the firm recorded for the “before times” year 2019. Furthermore, it was more than four times the amount spent in the similarly recession-scarred year of 2009.

The data showed a staggering $485 billion worth of spending on tech and telecom acquisitions in aggregate for the final two quarters of 2020. That pushed the value of deals announced in just the final half of last year higher than the full-year totals for every year except two since 2002 (according to the M&A KnowledgeBase). To top that off, the tech M&A market exited 2020 at a trillion-dollar run rate.

The second half of 2020 marked a record level of spending as emboldened acquirers started making larger tech purchases. Tech vendors were announcing multibillion-dollar deals that would have been unimaginable just a few months earlier.

In the case of COVID-19, the slowdown was measured in mere months, rather than years. Already by summer, acquirers’ pent-up demand – combined with Wall Street’s confidence in the tech sector to thrive, not just survive, during the lockdown – flooded into the tech mergers and acquisitions market.