Tech Deal’s : More To Come

While harsh views about the recent acquisitions centered around Skype and Oracle acquistions like this and this continue to be aired it is clear that the merger trend shall only continue to be felt more. The Bweek article sees that the post bubble Internet companies, which lost much of their cache and credibility are sought after once again & spots a host of financial and technological currents behind the resurgence in tech deals. After a patchy few years, the outlook is cheerier for tech companies now. Buyers have cleaned up balance sheets and would-be targets are generating revenue. The economy is stronger, and technologies such as wireless e-mail, wireless fidelity, digital music, high-definition TV and broadband work better and cost less. As a result, the number of tech transactions are expected to rise further. Soft finances and the Finances the 80 tech players in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index at the end of Q2 having some $229 billion in cash and equivalents on their balance sheets (more than twice the total at the end of 1999 would facilitate many of those companies use their cash for M&A. The target Internet companies are healthier and therefore more attractive. There is also the view that the Internet companies that are around today have strong business models and they are executing well. The rise of faster, always-on broadband connections has been a particular boon to the tech M&A market. Software companies like Oracle are expanding their offerings and preparing for the day when pieces of software will interact automatically in new ways over faster networks. Index Ventures’s Dan Rimer sees the Internet beginning a new chapter with pervasive broadband allowing internet services adoption to happen faster and accounting for their growth and attraction to be bought out. As he sees innovation is moving at such as fast pace, and big companies realize they can't develop all of the innovations they need in-house.
Some more potential acquisition candidates:
-Salesforce.com
- RightNow Technologies
- Lot more best-of-breed players in almost the entire enterprise ebusiness space
- Reuters in information media
The boom is likely to go on for some time. Buyers have lots of cash, and sellers look much more stable than those of years past. Technology is challenging old giants and creating new opportunities - and the appetite for big bets is rising once againToday at least there is an impression that one could collect that almost every medium & small enteprise in the software and internet sector have been either approached or approaching others for eventual merger with peers. The merger sentiment is getting stronger and stronger - right or wrong..