mergertech

Sitting down with yourself and answering a few key questions is a good place to start when considering selling your company, or merging with another business. There are many factors that should come into play when talking about making such a big decision.

First and foremost, it is important to evaluate whether you have more passion or exhaustion in your career, Forbes contributor Kate Harrison says. If you find that your exhaustion levels outweigh your passion for the project, it may be time to find a new leader, or sell the company altogether.

According to Entrepreneur, buyers considering your company may be put off if they feel like they would be unable to operate the business without you. They may also be hesitant to fully invest if your company relies too heavily on one particular client.

Anyone can start a blog. With the proliferation of open platforms like Blogger and WordPress, many writers and content creators have dabbled in blogging over the last 15 years, but only a sliver of them have broken out into widespread popularity. For that reason, many casual bloggers (and even those who devote significant time and energy to their projects) will tell you how hard it is to monetize content for a blog startup, even when they've grown a modest following.

For a really unique and original blog, one monetization route is for a larger entity, a publication or a company, to acquire the rights to host it. As an acquisition strategy, this can help companies expand the size and reach of their existing websites, lend a new voice to their brand expression and bring your company to the attention of the blog's existing readership.

This week, the platform announced that it will acquire Kosei, which Ad Age describes as a data firm specializing in targeted ads based on preference modeling. Pinterest is a site where users engage by indicating their aesthetic preferences, so it's clear how Kosei will fit into the company's overall strategy.

One of the paradigms technology has broken down in the Internet age is education. From instructional technology to advanced degree offerings online, the web is rife with opportunities for individuals to expand their knowledge and abilities from the comfort of home. One firm hoping to make a bigger splash in the instructional space is Pluralsight, a training service that helps enhance skill sets for professionals.

With the shared goal of broadening user horizons by teaching them valuable skills, Pluralsight and Code School have agreed to a $36 million deal that marks Pluralsight's sixth acquisition in the last year and a half, according to TechCrunch.

One of the Super Bowl's most popularads, a spot by Budweiser, featured a lost dog who wandered throughthe snow in search of his owner. With the rise of wearable pet technology, finding lost pets is becoming easier, and the tech sphere has made room for several key players in development.

One of the Super Bowl's most popularads, a spot by Budweiser, featured a lost dog who wandered throughthe snow in search of his owner. With the rise of wearable pet technology, finding lost pets is becoming easier, and the tech sphere has made room for several key players in development.

The terms of the merger were not disclosed, but a company as massive as Microsoft oversees scores of mergers and acquisitions as a method of growth and industry dominance. For many small tech firms with a clearly defined but narrow niche of service, acquisition by a company like Apple, Microsoft or any number of web giants is a sought-after ticket. 

"What won't change however is the number of new buyers coming to the table," writes Jacob Mullins in Business Insider. "These buyers aren't your typical Silicon Valley tech acquirers, they are more traditional household companies and brands looking to embrace technology to better reach end users and create greater efficiencies within their own businesses. And their appetite for boutique acquisitions of tech companies is just gearing up."

"Innovation has always been at the core of our company, and now we are better positioned to design open, digital products for the athlete of tomorrow and become more proactive in providing solutions that will help people across the world lead healthier lifestyles," said Kevin Plank, Founder and CEO of Under Armour, at the time of the deal. 

Streamlining and securing documents is a major marketplace in the tech sphere, with more and more firms relying on cloud-based solutions for records and other materials. Two companies in the field have agreed to a merger: Axacore, Inc., a San Diego-based mortgage document management firm and Scrypt, Inc., a healthcare document company based in Austin, Texas.

The merger is the culmination of a five-year partnership, according to Mortgage Technology. Recently, Axacore has developed new platforms and technologies to support Scrypt's growth, so a merger appears to be a natural progression from casual collaboration to formal absorption. The merged company will retain the Scrypt name, with restructuring and consolidation initiatives to begin early this year. 

Facebook continues to look for ways to expand into new IT areas. Last week, the social network completed the acquisitions of two California startups whose technologies could help Facebook compete with other IT giants.

Two companies that have devoted themselves to making wireless charging a reality have announced a merger. The Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) and Power Matters Alliance (PMA) are research and development firms with members in the tech industry. While they've long been at odds pursuing breakthroughs in wireless charging technology, combining their efforts could help put the technology on shelves sooner.

Voice recognition is fast shedding its novelty status and is now a basic feature of many new smartphones from Apple, Google and Microsoft. It is increasingly used for messaging as well as for intelligent personal assistants like Google Now, Microsoft Cortana and Siri.

We are officially in the age of the stock photo. Last month, Microsoft announced that it would discontinue its popular "Clipart" feature in Microsoft Office Suite, and replace it with a search engine to find licensed images for users to insert under fair use guidelines. Copyright law has made it increasingly difficult and frowned-upon for designers and casual document creators to use images without permission, and Shutterstock has been a leading provider of audio and visual content.

The splashiest tech mergers are billion-dollar partnerships between industry giants. And while 2014 posted more than its share of mega-mergers, experts say that the M&A momentum could focus activity in 2015 on smaller acquisitions. Rather than learning that the usual suspects have paid inordinate amounts of cash for big names in mobile apps or cloud computing, it's likely this year will be defined by other industries taking small bites out of the tech sphere.