The deal which is this year’s third largest acquisition across all sectors is aimed to diversify Dell’s stagnant consumer PC market by giving it more profitable and faster-growing market for cloud-based data services.
In what can be termed as the biggest deal in the technology industry, Computer-maker Dell Inc bought data storage company EMC Corp for $67 billion on Monday.
Here is a list of biggest tech deals — not all of them ended up as being great though — in the recent years:
1. Hewlett-Packard – Compaq $25 Billion
US technology giant Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq Computer for $25 billion in a bid to compete with IBM in September 2001.
2. Facebook – WhatsApp – $19 Billion
The social networking giant bought mobile messaging service WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in February 2014, which is the company’s largest acquisition till date.
3. Google – Motorola Mobility – $12.5 billion
Internet search engine Google bought the handset business of Motorola to counter Apple in the smartphone market in August 2011 for $12.5 billion. Less than three years later, Google sold Motorola to China’s Lenovo for $2.91 billion.
4. Hewlett-Packard- Autonomy – $10.24 billion
US technology giant Hewlett-Packard bought British enterprise software company Autonomy for $10.24 billion in August 2011.
5. Microsoft – Skype – $8.5 billion
Microsoft bought Internet voice and video leader Skype for $8.5 billion, the largest acquisition ever by the US software giant in May 2011.
6. Oracle – Sun – $7.4 billion.
US business software giant Oracle buys struggling Sun Microsystems and its Java programming language for $7.4 billion in April 2009.
7. Microsoft – Nokia – $7.2 billion Microsoft bought the former mobile handset market leader Nokia for in an effort to catch up to rivals Apple and Google in September 2013 for $7.2 billion.