MANAMA: Despite the recession, mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the high-tech sector worldwide made 365 deals worth $27.2 billion by September 2009, the highest total since December 2007, according to a new report by Booz & Company.
The report, which was released on Monday, said that despite being widely affected by the economic downturn, the technology sector experienced various bright spots in 2009, something that points to the direction the sector is to take throughout 2010.
The effects of the economic downturn that began in autumn 2008, the report said, were felt throughout the technology sector, which includes semiconductors, consumer electronics, software, computing and network infrastructure.
“Spending by consumers and corporations was down significantly during 2009, but despite cost cutting by enterprise technology companies, last year brought with it some bright spots: Second-quarter sales of netbooks increased by 40 percent over the previous quarter; shares of VMware, a maker of virtualization software, more than doubled since hitting a low in December 2008 suggesting a continued interest in virtualization; Apple’s revenues and earnings remained strong as customers continued to find the Apple ‘ecosystem’ appealing; and the digitization of everyday tasks continued apace, with the rapid growth of electronic reading on Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader,” the report added.
“These bright spots confirm the relevance of the five key trends we expect to redefine the technology sector throughout 2010 -- including further consolidation, the growth of cloud computing, the further consumerization of technology, the acceleration of open innovation, and the growing power of emerging markets,” said Ramez Shehadi, a partner at Booz & Company.
“In the long-term, two major structural forces will continue to drive tech M&A. The first is the determination of many larger players to quickly increase the scale and scope of their business,” said Shehadi.
