The 10 Biggest Tech M&A Deals of 2022

Let’s make a Deal

The economic uncertainty of 2022 does not appear to have slowed M&A activity within the IT industry. Throughout the year, IT vendors, solution providers, and private equity firms continued to negotiate acquisition and merger deals with price tags of hundreds of millions, billions, and even tens of billions of dollars.

Acquisition activity may even have increased in the first half of 2022 with the overall stock market crash and share prices falling, and company valuations shrinking, leading to some bargains.

Blockbuster’s acquisitions have the potential to remake segments of the IT industry. The combination of two or more companies can create a new dominant power in, for example, semiconductors, IT management tools for MSPs, or products for hybrid work situations.

Acquiring companies may gain an infusion of technology that creates a competitive advantage or provides entry into a new vertical market. An acquisition can also give an IT provider additional manufacturing capacity or help a solutions provider establish a foothold in new geographies.

Even M&As that don’t happen can be big news in the IT industry. Cisco Systems, for example, allegedly made a $20 billion offer in early 2022 to buy machine data platform provider Splunk. In October, systems integrator DXC Technology confirmed that it was in discussions with a potential buyer —discussions that continued until the end of the year without agreement. One of the biggest news this year in the semiconductor industry was Nvidia’s decision to abandon its $40 billion deal to acquire Arm in the face of regulatory opposition.

Here’s a look at the biggest acquisition, merger and spin-off deals in the IT industry in 2022. Some deals were announced last year (or, in one case, even earlier) and completed this year. Others have been announced, but are still working their way through regulatory and/or shareholder approvals before they can close, some possibly not until 2023.

The value of the dollar is certainly a factor in this ranking. Acquisition of Oracle for 28.3 billion dollars from health system developer Cerner made our mid-year mergers and acquisitions listfor example. Adobe agreement to acquire Figma, a provider of collaborative design software, is worth an estimated $20 billion. And Microsoft’s deal to buy video game publisher Activision is priced at $75 billion.

But some M&As have a bigger impact on the IT industry in general and the channel in particular, and that’s also on this year’s list.