The 11 biggest tech acquisitions of 2016

Unlike IPOs, 2016 was pretty active for tech M&A. The year resulted in $612.9 billion in global tech deals, according to Dealogic, which made it the second best year for acquisitions. It nearly kept up the pace of record-setting 2015, where we saw $691.4 billion in tech transactions across the world.

A confluence of factors led to consolidation amongst semiconductors and enterprise tech. Some big bets were also made on automotive technology.

And expert dealmakers expect the trend to continue.

“We predict that 2017 will be strong,” says Jamie Leigh, a partner at Cooley. They’re expecting “continued private equity focus on tech and big buyers looking to remain competitive in the market places as sectors converge.”

Sam Angus, partner at Fenwick & West says “we will see demand for AI, security, big data and cloud companies/technologies as the large incumbents companies seek to expand their market positions in these areas.”

So what were the biggest deals of 2016? These were the top 11: