Tech acquisitions to watch in 2022

Will the pace of big business acquisitions slow in 2022? Early indications are that this is not the case, as collaboration software and cybersecurity have proven to be hot topics.

Here are the most important enterprise technology purchases so far in 2022:

Broadcom buys VMware for $61 billion.

Broadcom and VMware announced that they have completed a $61 billion acquisition of virtualization and cloud computing company VMware. As part of the massive acquisition, Broadcom will also take on $8 billion in net debt from VMware in one of the largest deals so far this year.

The current Broadcom Software Group will be renamed VMware, pending regulatory approval and closing conditions.

Salesforce acquires Troop.ai

Salesforce has announced that it will acquire Troops.ai for an undisclosed price. Since its founding in 2016, Troops.ai has used Microsoft Teams and Slack bots to expose CRM data from many systems, including Salesforce.

When the deal closes in 2023, Salesforce said the Slack and Troops teams it acquired in 2020 will become part of Slack.

Google acquires Raxium MicroLED.

Raxium, a five-year-old Bay Area company focused on developing micro-LED display technology for AR and VR headsets, has been acquired by Google. Financial details of the deal have not been released, although sources at The Information say it could be worth as much as $1 billion.

The Raxium team will join Google's Devices and Services division immediately.

Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion

When billionaire Elon Musk initially bid for the Twitter network, he explained that it was returning to private ownership after nine years as a public company.

The purchase price was a staggering $44 billion, of which Musk contributed $21 billion from his own money and debt financing from financial institutions. On April 1, the purchase price represented a 38% premium to Twitter's closing price.

Although the board initially rejected Musk's proposal and issued an anti-takeover mechanism, it decided to accept the proposal after learning that the acquisition would be funded.

Kaseya buys Datto for $6.2 billion and takes it private.

Security software company Kaseya has agreed to buy Datto for $6.2 billion. Following Datto's listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2020, Kaseya plans to take the company private again. Since its inception in 2007, Datto has been a leading provider of data protection and security solutions for managed service providers.

AMD acquires Pensando

Japanese semiconductor company Pensando was acquired by AMD for $1.9 billion.

PENSADO focuses on developing software-defined cloud, computing, networking, storage and security services that can be easily deployed to service providers and hosting sites.

Celonis acquires Process Analytics Factory.

Process mining company Celonis has agreed to buy German software company Process Analytics Factory for about $100 million.

Celonis has primarily focused on helping companies improve their ERP processes, but more recently it has also helped them improve their workflow automation platforms. The acquisition of process mining company Process Analytics Factory will help Microsoft Power Platform customers automate business processes using Microsoft's Power BI platform.