The 10 biggest tech mergers and acquisitions of 2009
Network World - The top 10 mergers and acquisitions in the network industry in 2009 all cracked the billion-dollar barrier, and involved vendors in hardware, IT services, collaboration, storage, wireless infrastructure and other segments. IT behemoths such as Oracle, Cisco, Dell, HP, EMC and IBM were among the biggest spenders.
Here are the top 10 acquisitions from 2009 based on publicly disclosed transaction values, including some deals that are still pending and may not be completed until 2010.
Bots, bombs and weird science: The wackiest stories of 2009
1. Oracle-Sun: $7.4 billion
It seems a long time ago that Oracle announced its blockbuster deal to purchase the struggling Sun Microsystems, giving the industry's largest database software vendor entry into the server and storage markets. The acquisition, still pending, was announced in April, and may even be blocked because European regulators are contending that combining Oracle's technology with Sun's open source MySQL database would violate competition laws. Oracle-Sun is by no means a done deal, but if it goes through it would give Larry Ellison new ammunition against Microsoft (in the database market) and against big hardware vendors such as IBM, HP and Dell.
2. Xerox-Affiliated Computer Services: $6.4 billion
In one fell swoop Xerox was able to triple its services revenue from $3.5 billion to $10 billion a year with the purchase of business process outsourcer Affiliated Computer Services. The agreement, announced in September, combines 74,000 ACS employees with Xerox's staff of 54,000, which runs the company's longtime photocopier business and various document management technologies and services. Xerox believes ACS will help it penetrate new markets without huge amounts of overlap, saying that only about 20% of the companies' customers are common to both businesses.
3. Dell-Perot Systems: $3.9 billion
Just days before Xerox's big move, Dell announced an agreement to buy Perot Systems, another major IT services firm founded by Ross Perot. Dell is betting that Perot will help it become a leading services company, and allow it to sell more hardware to existing Perot customers, many of whom are in the healthcare and government industries. Dell's purchase can also be seen as a response to rival HP's $13.9 billion acquisition the previous year of EDS -- another services company founded by Perot.
4. Cisco-Tandberg: $3.4 billion
Cisco, already a major player in collaboration products with WebEx and TelePresence, signed an agreement in October to purchase videoconferencing vendor Tandberg, which makes both video devices and network infrastructure products. The acquisition, if completed, could have both a direct and indirect impact on Cisco's bottom line, because expanded use of videoconferencing may increase network traffic, letting Cisco sell more switches and routers.


- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Finding the right cloud solutions for your organization
- HP is driving the evolution of what we call the Instant-On Enterprise. It is an enterprise that embeds technology into everything it does...
- Converged Infrastructure for Dummies
- As you know, everything is mobile, connected, interactive, and immediate. This is exactly why organizations need a highly agile IT infrastructure in order...
- Measuring the Business Value of CI in the Data Center
- One of the key strategies that IT teams are pursuing to reduce capital costs while boosting asset utilization and employee productivity is the...
- Seven Priorities for Integrated Network Management - How HP Intelligent Management Center Delivers an Enterprise-class Solution
- This white paper describes the major requirements for network management solutions to help the organizations become more profitable, efficient and reliable.
Intel and the... - Building Cloud-Optimized Data Center Networks white paper
- Enterprises are turning to the Cloud to improve business agility, reduce expenses and accelerate business innovation. Cloud computing redefines the way IT assets... All Data Center White Papers
- Redefine Expectations in the Data Center
- Need to do more with less? Watch this video to learn how HP ProLiant Gen8 servers can help your business deploy servers three...
- Oracle Database Appliance Best Practices
- Business users increasingly demand 24x7 availability of their data while IT departments face the challenge of ensuring maximum availability while operating with limited...
- Unlock the Value of Cloud Computing with Workload Automation
- Learn how to get the most from your cloud investment in our on-demand webinar from BMC and InformationWeek. You'll hear how integrating the...
- Introduction to Virtualization
- Have you been thinking about what it would take to start using virtualization? Or do you know the basics and want to find...
- Best Practices to Optimize Your Data Center at Every Layer of the Stack
- Date: May 31, 2012
Time: 1 PM EST
Organizations are reaping the benefits of simplifying IT, lowering costs and dramatically improving transactional throughput by deploying...
All Data Center Webcasts
