mergertech

The Dell-EMC deal has been at the forefront in the minds of many in the tech industry. Not only because of its hefty $67 billion cost, but also because what it will mean for the main three companies this transition will affect.

EMC currently operates in four particular sectors of the tech industry as: EMC Information Infrastructure, Pivotal, VMware Virtual Infrastructure and a newly launched Virtustream unit, according to Forbes. As part of the deal VMware, a provider of cloud and virtualization software and services, became an acquired tracking stock.

"Our integration philosophy is straightforward," Marriott Chief Financial Officer Carl Berquist said to Forbes. "We expect to choose the best from each company: systems, designs, operations and talent. Our similar organization structures should help to integrate the work more easily."

Mergers and acquisitions hit an all-time high in 2015 as the total value of deals hit $5 trillion. Deal value increased 37 percent from 2014. The previous record was $4.29 trillion set in 2007. The $5 trillion also shatters analysts' expectations for 2015, which were set at $4.3 trillion. And, just as impressive, the fourth quarter of 2015 scored the highest figure of any single quarter on record.

What is your company worth? The balance sheet of assets probably doesn't tell the entire story when you consider the potential for your company to generate serious revenue as it grows and thrives. The value of your startup might be even higher when you consider how it can be leveraged in conjunction with the resources and reach of a larger buying company. For that reason, determining what price or payment arrangement is "fair" can be tricky for entrepreneurs to determine.

Photoshop has deeply engrained itself in public consciousness, from the images we see on billboards and magazines to the tools entrepreneurs use to brand their companies. With the rise of 3D printing, the needs for visual creations are quickly outgrowing the first two dimensions. As such, it was announced this week that Adobe, creator of Photoshop, InDesign and other popular content creation software, has purchased Mixamo.

There are times when mergers or acquisitions are used as a tool of retirement. When a longtime CEO is finished professionally and has no one to turn his or her business over to, sometimes a merger or acquisition can set his or her brainchild up for success while presenting a nest egg for retirement. A study called "CEO Preferences and Acquisitions" by Dirk Jenter and Katharina Lewellen of the National Bureau of Economic Research described this phenomenon in the traditional way these deals are viewed.

"Bidders thus are more likely to target firms with retirement-age CEOs, possibly because of these CEOs' reduced resistance to takeovers," summarizes Matt Nesvisky of the study's findings. "The increase in takeover activity appears precisely at the age-65 threshold, with no gradual increase as CEOs approach retirement age, ruling out many alternative explanations."

This week, it was announced that Arcadia Healthcare Solutions has acquired Sage Technologies for $28 million. Arcadia is a Burlington, Massachusetts-based analysis firm and Sage Technologies is headquartered in Illinois.

On the surface, a company like Spotify looks like a glossy entertainment enterprise. From collaborations with popular artists to partnerships with music festivals, from the customer perspective, the focus is on music and access to streaming songs.

After announcing that it planned to sell its assets to Staples back in February, office supply chain Office Depot has finally gained the approval of its shareholders to go ahead with the merger. However, nothing is definite yet, as the two companies still have to get permission from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) before the merger can be completed, and the commission has previously declined to give the go-ahead for the two companies to merge.

Uber, the popular ride-sharing app firm, has purchased digital-navigation technology from Microsoft and acquired 100 employees from the company. In a marketplace dominated by strong navigational abilities, Uber has made other deals over the last year to boost its in-house capabilities.

Mergers and acquisitions between companies are built on relationships between people. As the pace of tech M&A picks up even more, the shuffle of finding and persuading companies to take a look at your firm becomes even more frenzied. One of the best ways to put your brand on the map and get your foot in the door of important meetings is to build a strong professional network.

Machine learning is a cornerstone of tech development but sometimes training machines to absorb information can take time. Whetlab is a company that has pioneered systems to accelerate that process, reducing the amount of time it requires to get new machine learning systems off the ground.

This week, it was announced that Bloglovin', a blog reading platform, acquired social shopping startup called Finale. According to TechCrunch, this was in large part due to the firm's leader, Giordano Bruno Contestabile, who will become the new CEO of Bloglovin'.

"AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO. "AOL's advertising model aligns with this approach, and the advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams."

On this blog, we recently discussed Verizon's intent to purchase web giant AOL. As an East Coast-based telecommunications corporation, Verizon doesn't naturally compete with companies like Facebook and Google, but some experts say that its latest purchase may position Verizon to rival those industry leaders in the increasingly heated area of web advertising.

The merger or acquisition process is fraught with a great deal of sensitive information. Keeping certain details private can be the difference between signing a lucrative deal and losing the trust and attention of your prospective parent company. That's why much of the negotiation happens in closed meetings until more information is available to share with the public. However, deciding when to alert employees to decisions that will shape their future and that of your company can be a challenge.

Take Yahoo's touchstone acquisition of Tumblr, for example. We've discussed the purchase on this blog before, but one of the most striking things about it is the fact that Yahoo was traditionally known as a search engine and email service provider. As the tech landscape diversified over the last decade, the pressure for Yahoo to compete and remain relevant caused CEO Marissa Meyer to seek new ways to position the company. Tumblr, a blogging platform, is a space to view anything from celebrity memes to personal essays.

"We will continue to publish under the same name and leadership, with editorial independence," Re/code founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg wrote in a note to readers. "This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media's deep and broad skill set."