The largest software acquisition ever: IBM to buy Red Hat for $34B

At a price generally reserved for semiconductor, telecommunications and pharmaceutical giant companies, IBM today announced that it would pay a record $ 34 billion in cash and debt to acquire the open source provider for Red Hat companies. Eclipse the acquisition of LinkedIn for $ 26.2 billion Microsoft, this is the largest software acquisition in history. However, it is not the largest technology acquisition in history, since that title belongs to Dell's purchase of the $ 67 billion EMC data storage business.

You can get information about what IBM is buying from Red Hat to become a hybrid cloud company in the TechCrunch editor The deep immersion of Ingrid Lunden here:

So how does the agreement between IBM and Red Hat (if closed) against the other major acquisitions of all time?

Superior Technology Acquisitions

  1. $ 67 billion – Dell personal computer company buys EMC data storage
  2. $ 37 billion – Semiconductor company Avago Technologies buys and renames Broadcom semiconductor giant
  3. ] $ 34 billion (pending) – IBM computers buy open source software provider Red Hat
  4. $ 31.4 billion – Japanese conglomerate buys in SoftBank semiconductor company ARM Holdings
  5. $ 26.2 billion – The company of software Microsoft buys the professional social network Linkedin in 2016

Main acquisitions of software

  1. $ 34 billion (pending) – I BM Computers buys the open source software provider Red Hat in 2018
  2. $ 26, 2 billion – The software company Microsoft buys the professional social network LinkedIn in 2016
  3. $ 22 billion – The social network Facebook co mpra the WhatsApp messaging application in 2014
  4. $ 13.5 billion – Security software the manufacturer Symantec buys the storage management software maker Veritas in 2004 ($ 18 billion adjusted for inflation)
  5. $ 11 billion – Database company Oracle buys human resources software company PeopleSoft in 2004 ($ 14.7 billion adjusted for inflation)

Main acquisitions of history

  1. $ 202 billion – British Telecommunications Vodafone buys German telecommunications Mannesmann in 2000 ($ 296 billion adjusted for inflation)
  2. $ 165 billion – ISP AOL buys media conglomerate Time Warner in 200 ($ 241 billion adjusted for inflation)
  3. $ 111.8 billion – The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer buys the pharmaceutical company Warner Lambert in 1999 ($ ​​164 billion adjusted for inflation)
  4. $ 130 thousand thousand lones – Tel ecom Verizon Communications buys Vodafone and Bell Atlantic Verizon Wireless in 2013
  5. $ 130 billion – Dow Chemical buys chemical company DuPont in 2015

The Red Hat agreement is proof that software scalability can Massively concentrate wealth. Unlike the industrial giants of yesteryear who divided their fortunes with the suppliers of physical resources that supplied and distributed their good oil, chemical or packaging empires, the software does not require almost any material cost to create or distribute. The aggregation of value to the software giants and their leaders offers a great incentive to build a business that changes the world, but also a drastic change of capital from the hands of work. While it is fine to celebrate Red Hat's achievements, society must inevitably deal with poverty and populism fueled by the way the software channels money to a few.

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