The coming wave of tech acquisitions

Ben Bajarin
Time.com

Get ready for “a period of intense mergers,” said Ben Bajarin. During trying economic times like the one we’ve just been through, “one of the first things many companies cut” is research and development. When the economy starts to pick up, those companies realize, often with a sense of panic, that they’ve fallen behind in “investing for the future.” The best way “to catch up on innovation after research and development cuts” is—what else?—to buy up leaner, newer players. These days, many global companies are “looking to get an edge and catch up to some of the dominant players,” and more and more their way of doing so is to snatch up attractive companies. Just look at the feverish activity going on in Silicon Valley: “A classic signal of an impending acquisition boom is a hotbed of quickly growing startup companies.” Everywhere you turn out there, you see more “hot startups focusing on hardware in categories like the connected home and wearables.” These companies are growing, and adding new users at dizzying speeds. Some might say that boom augurs an impending bust. I see it as a clear sign that “we’ll see more acquisitions over the next five years than we have over the past 10.”