Tech M&As 2008: All the top deals

If 2008 had gone to plan, then the year would have been dominated by Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar takeover of internet portal Yahoo.

Despite all the right noises being made, the deal ultimately collapsed, saving Microsoft from a costly mistake and ultimately costing Yahoo its chief executive and a large portion of its share value.

Nonetheless, the year was a major one for takeovers and mergers as companies looked to consolidate in areas such as desktop computers, increase market share and acquire technology for future products and services.

The year began with the completion of a deal first announced in November 2007. IBM’s $5 billion (£3.75 billion) acquisition of business intelligence vendor Cognos cleared the final hurdle, being accepted by 99.8 per cent of Cognos’ shareholders. The year saw numerous smaller acquisitions by IBM in the software sector as Big Blue further diversified into software to support its server and services businesses.

US broadcasting giant Time Warner undid the biggest merger in the dot com era when it cut loose the internet service AOL, ending one of the least successful mergers in history.

In 2001, the two made history when they announced a $164 billion (£83.6 billion) merger to create a new media company with interests in everything from movies to cable TV to internet access. It failed to deliver and dragged the value of both businesses down.

AOL is now being touted as a possible takeover target for other internet companies including Google and Yahoo, as well as generating interest from Microsoft and News Corporation.

EMC launched a surprise takeover bid for consultancy firm Conchango, the latest in a long line of acquisitions for the storage company aimed at diversifying its business and building up its software arm.

Valued at only £42 million, the deal was unlikely to shake the foundations of the industry, but was nonetheless very strategic for storage specialist EMC. Adding Conchango to its existing US-based Microsoft consultancy practice would give it global consulting coverage and improve its professional services presence in the UK and Europe.

May kicked off with telecoms giant Cable & Wireless making a successful move on embattled Scottish enterprise telco Thus. As part of C&W’s plans to focus more on core networking services and servicing large enterprise customers, Thus was seen as a good fit.

Thus, which also owns Demon Internet, the ISP that kick-started the internet revolution in the UK eventually succumbed to C&W’s advances a month later.

Another move into professional services, this time from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor NetSuite. The fast-growing hosted business software provider snapped up OpenAir, a privately-owned company specialising in selling internet-based software to consulting and professional services companies.

NetSuite spent the rest of 2008 increasing its professional services activities as it looked to see its product suite to larger companies in the US and Europe.

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