In January, Microsoft made a takeover bid of almost 66 billion euros for the game publisher Activision Blizzard. If the deal actually goes through, it will be completed in June 2023, making it the largest deal in the gaming industry ever. MASTERS delves into history and lists the five largest tech deals in a row. Text: Fleur de Jong

1. Acquisition of EMC by Dell

In 2016, Dell paid no less than 64 billion euros for the acquisition of storage giant EMC. The increase in scale allowed Dell to increase its pace of investment and compete with companies such as HP Inc. While Dell was particularly strong in the market for small and medium-sized businesses, EMC dominated the large business market.

2. Acquisition of SDL by JDS Uniphase 

To meet the rapidly growing demand for fiber optic, network company JDS Uniphase acquired its competing fiber optic component manufacturer SDL Inc. in 2000. for approximately 35 billion euros.

3. Acquisition of Red Hat by IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM, is a company that is best known to the general public for the first IBM Personal Computer. IBM's core activities include the design and sale of computer hardware, software, technology and services in the IT sector. In 2019, the company acquired Red Hat for approximately 32 billion euros.

4. Acquisition of Slack by Salesforce  

Both parties had been in negotiations since 2020, the final acquisition recently took place in 2021. With the acquisition, Salesforce wanted to integrate Slack into the existing Customer 360 platform. The integration between both tools should help companies with the new way of working that has emerged after the pandemic. The so-called digital headquarters must digitally connect customers, employees and partners. Salesforce paid approximately 23 billion euros for the acquisition.

 5. Acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft

In 2016, this was Microsoft's largest deal ever; they bought LinkedIn for approximately 23,2 billion euros. It gave Microsoft the opportunity to grow the professional networking site and integrate it into Microsoft's business software, such as Office 356. Since the start of LinkedIn, they have collected 433 million users, so Microsoft paid 57 euros per registered user. Also read: 'Dress from The Wizard of Oz should fetch a mega amount'