Tech Industry M&A Market Cooled Off in 2015

IT services spending

Tech Industry M&A Market Cooled Off in 2015

A new report from PwC shows a drop in the number of M&As in 2015 from the year before, but IT services deals surged last year.

Tech Deals and Their Value Decline

278 tech industry M&A deals closed last year, totaling $147.7 billion in value, down from 289 transactions totaling $164.8 billion in value in 2014.

IT Services Number and Value of Deals Jump

IT services deals also surged in 2015, with 67 M&A transactions valued at $35.6 billion. That’s up from 38 deals worth $16.6 billion the year before.

Software: Number of Deals Up but Value Down

There were 105 software sector deals last year, up from 90 in 2014. However, the value of those deals declined from $43.9 billion to $34.9 billion within that period.

Internet Deals and Their Value Drop

There were 37 Internet deals worth $20.8 billion in 2015, down from 77 mergers valued at $49.8 billion the year before.

Fewer Hardware Deals

The hardware sector saw 37 deals totaling $18.5 billion last year, down from 55 M&A closings worth $37 billion in 2014.

Semiconductor Sector: Upswing in Number and Value of Deals

Last year, there were 32 M&A deals in the semiconductor sector worth $38 billion, up from 29 transactions worth $17.4 billion the year before.

Intel Bought Altera

The biggest deal of 2015 totaled $16.7 billion—the amount Intel paid to acquire programmable logic device vendor Altera.

NXP Semiconductors Acquired Freescale Semiconductor

Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors reduced its number of top competitors by one, acquiring U.S.-based Freescale, a design, research and development organization, for $11.9 billion.

Fidelity National Information Services Bought SunGard Data Systems

Looking to boost its presence in integrated software and processing solutions, Fidelity National Information Services closed on a $9.1 billion deal to acquire SunGard, a provider of integrated software and processing solutions.

Informatica Is Snatched Up

Many companies struggle with big data demands, creating an opportunity that Permira Advisers and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board concluded for $5.3 billion in acquiring Informatica, an enterprise data integration software and services provider.

Intercontinental Exchange Bought Interactive Data Corp.

Here’s another big deal for big data, as Intercontinental Exchange acquired Interactive Data Corp.—which specializes in market data and analytics solutions in the financial sector—for $5.2 billion.