The key technology M&A deals of 2022

2022 saw a number of high profile mergers and acquisitions across the technology sector. Here are some of the key deals;

 

Internet and Fintech

Perhaps the most high profile acquisition of the year saw Elon Musk buy Twitter for $44bn.

Swedish private equity firm EQT acquired Billtrust, a company offering an invoice-to-cash process automating system, for $1.7bn.

Delivery service provider Instabox bought logistics-tech startup from Stockholm Budbee for €1.6bn.

Global Payments acquired digital payments technology company EVO for $4bn.

Meanwhile digital payments company Rev Worldwide acquired Netspend from Global Payments for $1bn.

Amazon purchased One Medical, a company providing a membership-based primary care platform, in a $3.9bn all-cash deal including the company’s net debt.

Thoma Bravo, a software oriented investment firm, bought Bottomline Technologies, the financial services software provider, for $2.6bn. It also bought identity security company SailPoint for $6.9bn and SaaS financial planning software company Anaplan for $10.7bn.

AI security platform SentinelOne acquired identity security software company Attivo for $616.5m.

Getir, the delivery app company from Turkey acquired the delivery service Gorillas in Germany for $1.2bn.

Payments and financial services technology solutions provider Fiserv acquired banking software provider Finxact for $650m.

Thomson Reuters acquired SurePrep, an American tax automation software provider for $500m.

Google acquired Mandiant for $5.4bn. Mandiant provides cyber defence, threat intelligence and indicent response services. Google also announced its acquisition of Israeli-based cyber security company Siemplify for $500m.

American cyber security company Palo Alto Networks bought Cider Security for $300M.

 

Games

Microsoft announced its interntion to buy games giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7bn. However the planned acquisition is currently being challenged in court.

Sony acquired legendary game developer Bungie, creators of the Halo franchise, for $3.6bn.

Take-Two Interactive acquired leading mobile games company Zynga for $12.7bn.

Tencent-backed mobile developer Miniclip acquired Sybo, the Danish mobile games company best known for the Subway Surfers hit franchise.

Swedish video game and media holding company Embracer Group acquired Square Enix Europe for $300m.

Netflix acquired Next Games, a Finnish mobile games studio for €65m.

French video games & accessories company Nacon bought German developer Daedalic Entertainment for $60m.

Zynga acquired German mobile game developer NanoTribe for an undisclosed amount. Zynga’s subsidiary Rollic also acquired Popcore, a mobile game developer in Germany.

Keywords Studios acquired Forgotten Empires, developer of Age of Empires, for $32.5m. It also bought Canadian game developer Smoking Gun.

Sony bought Helsinki-based Savage Game Studios as the latest addition to PlayStation Studios Mobile Division.

Game engine maker Unity announced that it acquired IronSource, an Israeli-based software company that creates a platform for app monetization and distribution. The deal valued the company at $4.4bn.

Google acquired AI avatar startup Alter for $100m.

Candy Crush’s maker King announced its purchase of AI software developer Peltarion.

Russian game publisher My.Games was acquired by Aleksander Chachava, managing partner of Leta Capital. My.Games’ previous owner was VK Company, which is part of the Mail.ru Group. The deal valued the company at $642m.

 

Software

Vista Equity Partners bought Avalara, a tax compliance automation service provider, for $8.4bn. The firm also acquired cyber security company KnowBe4 for $4.6bn.

Microsoft acquired telecommunications software provider Nuance for $19.7bn.

Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital merged Citrix Systems with TIBCO Software. The deal values the overall company at $16.5 bn.

Semiconductor and infrastructure software supplier Broadcom announced its intention to acquire virtualization software provider VMware for $61bn. Whilst the deal has been approved by VMware shareholders, it is awaiting regulatory approval.

Intel span-off Mobileye via IPO at a valuation of $15bn. Mobileye creates driver-assist sensors and cameras for autonomous driving.

CRM vendor Zendesk was acquired by investment firms Hellman & Friedman and Permira. The two investors paid $10.2bn to take Zendesk private.

Cyber security software company NortonLifeLock (formerly known as Symantec) merged with Avast for £6bn.

OpenText, an EIM (Enterprise Information Management) software company, acquired Micro Focus, UK-based software and consulting company for $6bn.

Data cloud company Snowflake acquired Streamlit for $800m. Streamlit is a startup creating an open-source framework for machine learning and data science teams building web apps.

CDN (Content Delivery Network) service provider Akamai acquired Linode, an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) company, for $900m.

CDN service provider Cloudflare acquired Email security company Area 1 Security for $126m.

UK-based ERP software vendor Unit4 acquired source-to-contract software vendor ScanMarket. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RPA platform provider UiPath acquired a London-based NLP (Natural Language Processing) startup Re:infer. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ERP software company Sage acquired Lockstep, a company creating AR automation software. It also bought Brightpearl, a software company providing operating systems for retailers.

ERP software company IFS acquired Ultimo, an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software company in Netherlands. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IT Management & Security Software company Kaseya bought disaster recovery system company Datto for $6.2bn.

Liberty Strategic Capital acquired mobile security service company Zimperium for $525m.

 

Neon River is a headhunting firm that specializes in working with high growth internet, software, fintech and gaming clients. If we can help you in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out.