All M&As in 2015

Since 1998 we analyze the merger and acquisition trends in the worldwide storage industry, which has allowed us the proper perspective from which to gauge the evolution over time.

NUMBER OF ACQUISITIONS SINCE 1998 IN WW STORAGE INDUSTRY

(Source: StorageNewsletter.com)

In 2006, there was a record of 104 M&As. Since 2012, the number of deals decreased yearly to reach 51 in 2015 compared to 69 the former year, and 65 being the average per year since 1998.

And into these 51 M&As in 2015 are included ten by only J2 Global getting small online backup companies. The price of only 15 deals was revealed by the buyers, meaning that it was relatively low for the 36 other ones with an amount not impacting seriously their financial results.

ALL M&As IN 2015 WITH KNOWN PRICE

(Source: StorageNewsletter.com)

What’s impressive in 2015 is the number of deals surpassing $1 billion, a total of 5 vs. 2 last year. And there was even the highest acquisition in the history of the storage industry, at $67 billion (EMC by Dell)  – even if both of them are not in storage only – and the second one ($19 billion by WD to acquired SanDisk), this latter becoming the biggest M&A in storage only.

MORE THAN $1 BILLION M&As IN HISTORY OF STORAGE INDUSTRY
(five in 2015)

2015: EMC by Dell, $67,000 million
2001: Compaq by HP, $25,000 million
2015: SanDisk by Western Digital, $19,000 million
2005: Veritas by Symantec, $11,000 million
2011: Autonomy by HP, $10,300 million
1998: Digital Equipment by Compaq, $9,600 million
2015: Veritas (Symantec) by The Carlyle Group and GIC, $8,000 million
2009: Sun by Oracle, $7,400 million
2013: LSI by Avago technologies, $6.600 million
2011: Hitachi GST by WD, $4,300 million
2005: StorageTek by Sun, $4,100 million
2000: Sterling Software by CA, $4,000 million
2000: Seagate by Suez Acquisition, $4,000 million
2006: Agere by LSI, $4,000 million
2014: Riverbed by Thoma Bravo, $3,600 million
2008: Foundry Networks by Brocade, $2,600 million
2012: Elpida by Micron Technology, $2,500 million
2012: Quest Software by Dell, $2,400 million
2010: 3par by HP, $2,350 million
2015: PMC-Sierra by Microsemi, $2,300 million
2010: Isilon by EMC, $2,250 million
2009: Data Domain by EMC, $2,200 million
2006: RSA by EMC, $2,100 million
2002: IBM HDD by Hitachi, $2,050 million
2000: Cobalt Networks by Sun, $2,000 million
2004: Kroll by Marsh & McLennan Companies, $1,900 million
2006: Maxtor by Seagate, $1,900 million
2000: Ancor Communications by QLogic, $1,700 million
1998: Seagate Software by Veritas, $1,600 million
2006: FileNet by IBM, $1,600 million
2006: msystems by SanDisk, $1,500 million
2007: EqualLogic by Dell, $1,400 million
2011: Samsung HDD by Seagate, $1,375 million
2000: Quantum HDD by Maxtor, $1,300 million
2003: Legato by EMC, $1,300 million
2010: Numonyx by Micron, $1,270 million
1996: Cheyenne by CA, $1,200 million
2010: Division 5 Technology by Max Stiegemeier (GCF), $1,200 million
2015: Virtustream by EMC, $1,200 million
1999: Data General by EMC, $1,100 million
2014: Fusion-io by SanDisk, $1,100 million
1995: Conner Peripherals by Seagate, $1,040 million
(Source: StorageNewsletter.com)

In conclusion, there was not an intense activity in 2015  in number of deals but some of them represented enormous sum.

For the 15 operations with price being known, average is incredible, $6.7 billion. Since 1998 the former record was only $1.0 billion. Last year total was $6.3 billion for an average of $392 million per deal.

Consequently, the average price per M&A since 1998 has increased from $393 million to $409 million.

We are not far to reach $200 billion spent in M&As once more since 1998.

EMC was historically is the most voracious in the industry with 81 acquisitions since 1994, but was much quieter these past years. It acquired a record 23 companies in 2006 and 2007 only, just one in 2011, three in 2012 and 2013, five in 2014 and three in 2015 (CloudLink Technologies, Virtustream and Graphite Systems).

With these 81 deals, EMC is largely in front of Seagate (including Seagate Software) with a total of  31 acquisitions, Iron Mountain 29, Veritas added to Symantec 25, IBM, WD, LSI with Avago 20, J2 Global 19, Dell 18, Xyratex (acquired by Seagate), HP and NetApp 16.

TOTAL AMOUNT OF ACQUISITIONS SINCE 1998
(here we include only the acquisitions when the price is known)

* in $ million
(Source: StorageNewsletter.com)

The consolidation in the industry will continue because some publicly-traded companies are in bad shape and there are too many storage start-ups trying to survive with only two goals: to be acquired or die.

Furthermore a trend is not going to stop: storage giants invent about nothing in new killing storage technologies and prefer to get them by acquiring start-ups. It’s less expansive than investing in their own R&D.

We will probably continue to see several M&As in the most demanding storage sectors: cloud market, software, systems, and SSD where there are too many companies, but also in the channel for consolidation.

WHO BOUGHT WHOM IN 2015

  (Source: StorageNewsletter.com)