2017 was a year full of so many corporate deals. Several companies tried expanding to new markets and services by making deals with other companies. Big companies acquire the small ones to strengthen their marketplace. Sometimes, 2 big companies merge together to create a monopoly in the market. Below are the biggest acquisitions and mergers happened in the business world in 2017.
1. Vodafone-Idea merger
The entry of Reliance Jio made these popular mobile network companies to announce a merger which will form a telecom company which is India’s biggest both in terms of revenue and subscribers. Vodafone will hold 45.1% stake in the merged entity while the Aditya Birla Group will have 26% shareholding in the total valuation of $23 billion.
2. Flipkart’s acquisition of eBay India
Indian e-commerce website Flipkart acquired the Indian wing of eBay in April 2017, Flipkart took this decision for making a global presence and compete with Amazon. This deal can bring new investments for Flipkart from the parent company eBay in future.
3. Tata and Bharti Airtel
Another big business deal that was made after Jio destroying the telecom market for other companies. India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel made a merger with Tata Group’s mobile business. Bharti Airtel will now hold Tata Group’s operations across 19 circles under Tata Teleservices. This merger also includes the transfer of more than 40 million customers.
4. Disney acquiring entertainment assets of Fox
In December 2017, Walt Disney Company announced acquiring 21st Century Fox’s film and television studios for a total value of $66.1 billion. The deal included Popular entertainment properties of Fox namely Fantastic Four, Deadpool, The X-Men, Avatar, Star India, Simpsons, FX Networks, and National Geographic.
5. Verizon-Yahoo deal
Verizon acquired Yahoo in June at a value of $4.48 billion. Marissa Mayer the CEO of Yahoo decided to resign after this deal. The assets acquired from Yahoo were combined with AOL brands under a new entity called Oath, Oath currently holds over 50 brands that include the popular HuffPost, TechCrunch and Tumblr.
6. Google buying HTC’s smartphone team
Google agreed to buy a part of HTC’s phone division for $1.1 billion. Along with obtaining a part of the phone division, Google will also get a set of HTC employees, many of whom worked on the Pixel smartphones. HTC will continue making its own phones and virtual reality headsets.
7. Cisco acquired BroadSoft
American tech company Cisco Systems agreed to acquire software company BroadSoft in a deal having a value of about $1.9 billion. This deal will give Cisco a new presence in cloud-based products and services. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2018. This is Cisco also acquired AppDynamics for $3.7 billion.
8. Johnson & Johnson acquired Actelion
Popular healthcare company Johnson & Johnson acquired the biotech firm Actelion for $30 billion. The acquisition has given Johnson & Johnson an access to the Swiss group’s line-up of high-priced, high-margin medicines for rare diseases.
