Top 50 Acquisitions in Tech World | Some less known Tech Takeovers in Human History

Acquisitions are not a new thing in this world. Almost every company that fail to exercise its strategies in a planned manner, tend to sell itself in hands of other capable company. These days, acquisitions are happening too fast, whether due to recession in that particular field, or in-capabilities to survive with present technology. Today, we are flashing light upon some of the top most technical acquisitions occurred in Tech history of the World.

List of Technical Company takeovers in chronological order :

• Microsoft bought Powerpoint - Yes, surprisingly Microsoft hasn't developed Powerpoint instead they acquired it from its developer Robert Gaskins on 31 July 1987. As per Robert Gaskins In his BBC article "PowerPoint was first launched on the Mac platform on 20 April 1987 after its developers decided Windows was not able to support it. Microsoft bought PowerPoint 25 years ago, on 31 July 1987. PowerPoint became the first acquisition made by MS, creating a new business unit located in Silicon Valley. Microsoft finally completed the deal for $14m." 

• Apple bought NeXT - Dec 20, 1996, Apple acquired NeXT for $400 million. With the purchase of NeXT, Apple bought the core of what is now Mac OS X.
• Microsoft bought Hotmail - On December 31, 1997, Microsoft acquired Hotmail, Web-based email service for $500 million, its largest acquisition at the time, and integrated Hotmail into its MSN group of services. It helped MS to make free email a feature of the Microsoft Network.
• Yahoo bought Broadcast.com - On April 1, 1999, Yahoo acquired Internet audio and video streaming company Broadcast.com [BCST.COM] for $5.04 billion.
• Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq - In September 2001, US technology giant HP bought Compaq Computer for $25 billion in a bid to compete with IBM.
• eBay bought PayPal - In June 2002, Online auction house eBay bought online payments firm PayPal for $1.5 billion.
• Yahoo bought Overture - On Jul 14, 2003, Yahoo acquired Internet search listings service, Overture Services in a $1.63 billion. Overture was formerly known as GoTo.com.
• Google bought Android - On July 29, 2005, Google quietly acquired Android, cellphone software company in 2005 for an undisclosed price which has been estimated at $50 million. The deal emerged as one of the biggest successes of Google, making it capable of standing against Apple in smartphone mobile market.
• Google bought YouTube - In October 2006, Internet search giant Google bought online video platform YouTube from its founders, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, for $1.65 billion.
• Google bought DoubleClick - Google acquired DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion. It is mentionable that Hellman & Friedman acquired DoubleClick for $1.1 billion almost 2 years ago.
• Dell bought SilverBack Technologies Inc. - On July 18, 2007 acquired SilverBack Technologies, Inc. Network Monitoring.
• Dell bought EqualLogic - On January 28, 2008 Dell acquired EqualLogic, Storage area networks for $1.4 billion.  
• Dell bought MessageOne - On April 24, 2008 Dell acquired MessageOne, Office software management for $155 million.
• Oracle bought Sun - In April 2009, US business software giant Oracle bought struggling Sun Microsystems and its Java programming language for $7.4 billion. It was the biggest tech takeover of the year 2009.
• Intel bought Wind River - On June 4, 2009, Wind River announced that Intel had bought the company for a $884 Million. Wind River which itself makes software for embedded devices, acquired the software assets of Berkeley Software Design Inc. (BSDI) in 2001.
• Amazon bought Zappos - On July 22, 2009 Amazon acquired online retail company, Zappos for $850 million. 
• Disney bought Marvel - On August 31, 2009 The Walt Disney acquired superheroes stable Marvel Entertainment for $4.24bn (£2.5bn) in a star-studded Hollywood deal.
• Adobe bought Omniture - On September 15, 2009 Adobe Systems acquired Web Traffic analytics company, Omniture Software for $1.8 billion.
• Nokia bought Dopplr - On September 28, 2009 Nokia acquired Dopplr , privately-held mobile service provider for international travelers.
• Cisco bought TANDBERG - On October 1, 2009 Cisco announced a $3 billion acquisition of Tandberg, a Norwegian video communications company.
  
• Cisco bought Starent - On October 13, 2009 Cisco acquired Mobile Infrastructure Specialist, Starent Networks for $2.9 Billion in order to boost its WiMAX and LTE portfolios.
• Nokia bought Novarra - On March 26, 2010 Nokia acquired Novarra, the US based mobile web browser firm in order to enter fray for mobile Web dominance.
• Panasonic bought Sanyo - On December 21, 2010 Panasonic acquired smaller tech rival Sanyo Electric for $4.6 Billion (400 billion yen).
• Wipro bought SAIC - On April 2, 2011 Azim Premji-led software major Wipro acquired the global oil and gas IT arm of US-based technology company SAIC [Science Applications International Corporation] for $150 million (Rs 790 crore). 
• Apple bought Siri - On April 28, 2010, Apple acquired Siri, developer of personal assistant app for more than $200 million. Siri is a Voice-Command App available on Apple's iOS for voice activated search.
• Twitter bought TweetDeck - On May 2, 2011 Twitter acquired TweetDeck for $40 Million. TweetDeck is a social media dashboard application for management of Twitter accounts.
• Microsoft bought Skype - In May 2011, Microsoft bought Internet voice and video leader Skype for $8.5 billion, the largest acquisition ever by the US software giant. Microsoft acquired the Internet phone service Skype for around $8.5billion (44,600 crore).
• Electronic Arts bought PopCap - On Jul 12, 2011, EA acquired PopCap Games for around $1.3 billion (Rs 6,820 crore). PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States.
• Google bought Motorola Mobility - In August 2011, Internet search giant Google acquired the handset business of Motorola for $12.5 billion in a bid to challenge Apple in the smartphone market. Google, primarily a search and online advertising company acquired US-based Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion (Rs 65,600 crore) in an all cash deal. It was the biggest tech takeover of the year 2011.

• Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy - In August 2011, US technology giant HP acquired yet another biggie, British enterprise software company Autonomy for $10.24 billion. US authorities later open an investigation amid HP accusations that Autonomy had engaged in "accounting improprieties."  Hewlett-Packard (HP) completed its $12 billion (Rs 63,000 crore) buyout of British software firm Autonomy.
• Oracle bought RightNow - Oracle acquired RightNow, Cloud Services on Oct 24, 2011. Oracle agreed to buy another cloud competitor, RightNow Technologies Inc., for $1.5 billion.
• Facebook bought Gowalla - On December 2, 2011 Facebook acquired Gowalla for $3 million in shares (undisclosed sum). Gowalla was a location-based social network launched in 2007 and was based in Downtown Austin, Texas. Gowalla was a primarily mobile web application that allowed users to check into locations that they visited using their mobile device.
• SAP bought SuccessFactors - SAP, the largest maker of business-management software, acquires cloud-based human capital management firm SuccessFactors [SFSF] for $3.4 billion on Dec 3, 2011. SAP acquired it in order to step-up the competition with arch-rival Oracle Corp. in the cloud-computing market.
• Apple bought Anobit - On December 14, 2011 Apple completed largest hardware acquisition ever by undertaking Israeli firm Anobit for $390 million. Anobit Technologies develops semiconductors for storage solutions used in Flash memory.
• Infosys BPO bought Portland Group - On December 21, 2011 the BPO division of software services firm Infosys has acquired Australia-based Portland Group for A$37 million (Rs 195 crore) in an all cash deal.
• Western Digital bought Hitachi - On March 8, 2012, Computing storage device firm Western Digital Corp. [WDC] acquired Hitachi Global Storage Technologies [HGST] for $3.9 billion in cash and 25 million shares of WD common stock, total of around $4.3 billion (Rs 22,500 crore). 
• Cisco bought NDS - March 15, 2012 Cisco acquired  Israeli Video Software Firm NDS for $5 Billion to Add Digital TV Software Services in its account making it the biggest tech takeover of the year 2012.
• Amazon bought Kiva Systems - In its Second Biggest Takeover after Zoppos.com, Amazon.com acquired Kiva Systems Inc., a Maker of Robot Systems on March 19, 2012, paying $775 million.
• Facebook bought Instagram - In April 2012, Facebook offers $1 billion for hot smartphone photo-sharing service Instagram. It was the largest purchase by Facebook at that time. Although final deal closed at US$715 million.
• Dell Buys Quest - On July 2, 2012 Dell acquired Quest Software for 2.36 billion dollars. Quest Software is a leader in enterprise software solutions comprising of database management, data protection, Windows server management as well as identity and access management. Due to decline in hardware and PC sales and rise in competition Dell took the smart move to acquire Quest.
• Apple Bought AuthenTec - On Jul 27, 2012 Apple acquired mobile security firm AuthenTec for $356 million in order to have fingerprint scanners for the iPhone and Mac.
• Yahoo bought Tumblr - In May 2013, Former Google executive Marissa Mayer makes her biggest purchase since taking over as CEO of Yahoo, buying the popular blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion.
• Silver Lake bought Dell - On February 5, 2013 Dell Inc. acquired by global technology investment firm Silver Lake for $24.3 Billion, making Dell, a private company. It was the biggest acquisition of year 2013.
• Microsoft buys Nokia - In September 2013, Microsoft acquired the handset business of former market leader Nokia for $7.2 billion in an effort to catch up to rivals Apple and Google in the smartphone market. Samsung came up with latest Google supported Android smartphones and left behind Nokia, which ultimately, ends up selling itself in hands of MS.
• Intel bought McAfee - On January 7, 2014 Intel paid $7.68 billion to acquire McAfee, one of the leading sellers of antivirus and other computer security software. Intel Changed McAfee Name to "Intel Security". It was the biggest tech takeover of the year 2010.
• Google bought Nest - Google acquired connected device maker, Nest for $3.2bn (£2bn) on Jan 13, 2014.  
• Google bought DeepMind - On January 27, 2014 Google acquired London based Artificial Intelligence Startup DeepMind technologies for $500 million to program computers to learn from visual data etc.
• Lenovo bought Motorola - On Jan 29, 2014 Chinese Tech giant, Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google for $2.91 billion. Google bought Motorola in 2011 for $12.5 billion. 
• Comcast bought Time Warner Cable - On February 20, 2014 Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion in stock, a deal that combines the two largest U.S. cable giants. Comcast is largest cable operator of USA.
• Facebook bought WhatsApp - On February 20, 2014 Facebook acquired fast-growing mobile-messaging app WhatsApp having more than 400 million users in a deal worth a total of $19bn (£11.4bn) in cash and shares.
• HP bought Shunra - On March 7, 2014 HP acquired Network Virtualization Business & Technology of Shunra. It is overall 136th acquisition by HP and 1st in 2014.
• Dell bought StatSoft - On March 24, 2014 Dell acquired StatSoft, Statistical Software and services for an undisclosed amount, making it their 1st acquisition in 2014 and 31st in total.
• Facebook bought Oculus  - On March 25, 2014 Facebook acquired Oculus Virtual-Reality firm [VR], maker of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for Approximately $2 Billion. 
• Charter bought Time Warner Cable - On April 28, 2014 Charter, a regional cable television provider with headquarters in Stamford, Conn. acquired the Milwaukee and Green Bay operations of Time Warner Cable from Comcast for $37 Billion.
• Microsoft bought GreenButton - On May 1, 2014 Microsoft acquired GreenButton, taking its tally of acquisitions to 162 and 2nd in 2014. GreenButton is Cloud Computing company based in New Zealand.
• Apple bought Beats - On May 9, 2014, Apple acquired Dr. Dre's Beats Electronics for $3.2 Billion. The company co-founded by Dr. Dre in 2008, is famous for its headphones market.