In a year that was noticeably quiet on the tech M&A front, Cisco emerged as the top player, making a total of 11 deals. While big names like Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, SAP, and Oracle mostly stayed on the sidelines, Cisco was the most active company, taking a significant bite in the M&A landscape.
SAP made a couple of smaller deals, while Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, and Oracle were not as active this year. The $61 billion Broadcom-VMware deal was one of the major highlights, with the deal finally closing last month. Additionally, the $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal ended after being stuck in regulatory limbo since its announcement in September 2022.
According to a report by CB Insights, there were no deals in Q3 this year from Big Tech. This marks a significant contrast from previous years, with 10 such deals in Q3 of 2019 and eight in 2020. The decrease in deals from the biggest players is evident and reflects the overall slowdown in M&A activity in the tech industry.
Rising borrowing costs may have contributed to the decrease in M&A activity in 2023. Compared to the staggering $165 billion worth of deals in 2020, the total deal value this year was just $67.7 billion, the lowest since 2019. This lower deal value combined with a significant number of deals involving private equity firms emphasizes the changing landscape of tech M&A.
Amidst the slowdown in big-ticket tech M&A deals, smaller acquisitions involving AI played a significant role. Deals like Atlassian acquiring Loom for $975 million, Salesforce acquiring Airkit.ai, and Snowflake nabbing AI search company Neeva highlight the importance of AI and its influence on M&A activity in the tech industry.
Despite the slowdown, here are the top 10 enterprise deals of the year:
– Atlassian acquiring Loom for $975 million
– Salesforce acquiring Airkit.ai for an undisclosed amount
– Snowflake acquiring Neeva for an undisclosed amount
While the lack of big players making major deals was notable, Cisco’s active role and the rise of AI-related acquisitions provided an interesting twist to the tech M&A landscape in 2023. As the industry continues to evolve, the year’s M&A activity reflects a changing paradigm in the tech sector.
