The Cloud Will Drive Technology Mergers and Acquisitions in 2012

According to Bloomberg, 2011 M&A deal volume in the technology industry surpassed $200 billion. Technology deals saw a gain of 36 percent outpacing an advance of about 4 percent for all M&A worldwide. Indicators suggest industry takeovers in 2012 could surpass the recent 2007 high. In 2007 takeovers reached $264.4 billion, the biggest year since 2000’s record high of $585.2 billion.

Consumers and workers alike are becoming increasingly mobile and cloud-based service providers are looking to extend cloud access from desktop and laptops to mobile devices and tablets. Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google and HP are looking for deals that will provide increased storage, analytics and security for enterprise in the cloud.

If deals in 2011 are any indication, Cloud-based companies will be the targets for 2012 technology M&A. In the biggest deal of 2011, HP agreed to buy Autonomy Corp. for 10.3 billion in a bid to build database search services and other cloud-related services for business.  Radian 6, a leader in cloud-based social media monitoring tools, social media engagement software and social CRM was acquired in March 2011 by SalesForce for $276 million. Cloud-based Virtual Data Rooms are being used to facilitate these large transactions.

Radian 6 used Firmex Virtual Data Room to organize and track their sell-side deal on-line. Radian 6 CFO Jeff White had this to say about using a Firmex Virtual Data Room, “Firmex is very easy to work with and keeps getting better with each release. We trust the security and the outstanding service provided by the Firmex team.”

Debbie Stephenson

Debbie Stephenson is a former Content Marketing Manager at Firmex.