The VAR Guy's Top 10 Priciest IT Acquisitions
With Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) recent acquisition of Aruba Networks (ARUN) still fresh in our minds, we got to thinking: What have been some of the biggest purchases in the IT world over the last several years?
Cost: $1.54 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2014
Reason for Purchase: VMware purchased AirWatch in Jan 2014 in a bid to conquer the enterprise mobility management solutions landscape, with company execs citing AirWatch's solutions as the best in the business.
Cost: $2.3 billion
Year: 2014
Reason for Purchase: Lenovo gained a valuable presence in the x86 server market with the purchase of IBM's hardware, which was expected to create new data center revenue sources for the vendor to compensate for slowing PC, smartphone and tablet sales.
Cost: $2.4 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2012
Reason for Purchase: Dell purchased Quest Software in 2012 for several key aspects of the company's business, including its extensive software products and migration services. The hardware giant also saw several other opportunities to grow its business using Quest's assets, including database management, performance monitoring, data protection and more.
Cost: $3 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2015
Reason for Purchase: Whitman and company nabbed Aruba Networks for the company's leadership role in enterprise wireless solutions, with Whitman herself saying the purchase would help HP crush rival networking solution vendor Cisco in the process.
Cost: $3.2 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2014
Reason for Purchase: Google nabbed Nest for the company's proficiency in designing smart home automation solutions as the Internet giant continues to turn its gaze toward the growing Internet of Things landscape.
Cost: $7.2 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2014
Reason for Purchase: Microsoft's purchase of legacy mobile device manufacturer Nokia was expected to give the company a much-needed boost to compete with rival mobile device giants including Samsung and Apple, which currently dominate the consumer smartphone market.
Cost: $7.4 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2009
Reason for Purchase: At the time, snapping up Sun Microsystems gave Oracle a chance to remain a big name in the database market, and even gave the company a shot at becoming a major player in the cloud services field. Oracle also voiced an interest in using Sun's assets to become a big name in the hardware business against the likes of Cisco Systems, IBM, Dell and HP.
Cost: $7.68 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2010
Reason for Purchase: In a surprising move, Intel broke away from its previous security partnerships with Microsoft and Symantec with the purchase of McAfee, giving the company the resources it needed to begin shoring up assets to protect cloud-based devices and systems.
Cost: $8.5 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2011
Reason for Purchase: With Skype reigning supreme as the No. 1 consumer video messaging solution, Microsoft stepped in to get a piece of the action and simultaneously grow its enterprise communication business in one fell swoop.
Cost: $10 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2011
Reason for Purchase: HP expected its $11.1 billion acquisition of British software maker Autonomy to lessen some of the company's reliance on its hardware sales, but the deal went wrong, ultimately costing HP $8.8 billion in write-downs as well as years worth of legal headaches and lost trust from shareholders and analysts alike.
Cost: $12.5 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2011
Reason for Purchase: Motorola has moved around a whole lot in the past several years. Google purchased the mobile phone company to kick start its entry into the mobile device manufacturer market, but things quickly turned sour, with Motorola reporting more than $1 billion in losses and 5,000 laid-off workers. Less than two years after Google's initial purchase, the company sold the Motorola Mobility business to Lenovo for 2.91 billion in 2014.
Cost: $12.5 billion
Year of Acquisition: 2011
Reason for Purchase: Motorola has moved around a whole lot in the past several years. Google purchased the mobile phone company to kick start its entry into the mobile device manufacturer market, but things quickly turned sour, with Motorola reporting more than $1 billion in losses and 5,000 laid-off workers. Less than two years after Google's initial purchase, the company sold the Motorola Mobility business to Lenovo for 2.91 billion in 2014.
With Hewlett-Packard‘s (HPQ) recent acquisition of Aruba Networks (ARUN) still fresh in our minds, we got to thinking: What have been some of the biggest purchases in the IT world over the last several years? Sure, buying a company for $3 billion might be an astronomical sum for most people, but when put in perspective with other recent deals, HP’s big purchase looks like chump change in comparison.
In light of all the recent big spending in the channel, we decided to put together a list of some of the most memorable (and expensive) purchases of the last several years, in ascending order. And remember, while these are far from the most expensive acquisitions in history, we tried to keep the list to the vendors who make up the bread and butter of The VAR Guy’s channel news.
What memorable IT acquisitions had you clutching your purse strings for dear life? Sound off in the comments below.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like