Major Startup Acquisitions In 2018

While the last year saw a host of interesting acquisitions in the startup world and the tech world, this year saw some major players in the industry taking over startups to help boost their positions in the world. From Amazon acquiring Tapzo to the much talked about Walmart and Flipkart deal, here are all the major acquisitions which took place in the tech world in the last year.

1. Walmart and Flipkart deal

Touted as one of the largest tech acquisitions in India in recent times, the Flipkart take over by Walmart was done with a lot of public speculations and comments! Big in terms of size and investment, Walmart acquired 77 % stake in Flipkart with a whopping investment of $ 16 billion! While the initial reaction to the deal was one of elation and excitement, the consequent exit of Flipkart’s initial founders (Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal,) came as a tale of caution for future startups looking at foreign investment! Despite all the negativity surrounding this takeover, this acquisition remains one of the biggest ones of the year.

2. IBM acquires Red Hat

IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat with an investment to the tune of approximately $ 34 billion is marked as one of the largest acquisitions of an open source company. Touted to be a game changer in this field, IBM acquired Red Hat by paying a premium of 63 %. Through this deal, Red Hat is being positioned as the first company to hit and break the billion dollar per quarter ceiling, making this take over an extremely lucrative one for the North Carolina based software providing companies.

3. Zomato takes in TongueStun

While the year 2017 saw Zomato being sidelined by Swiggy, this last year saw Zomato grow by leaps and bounds. Post securing investments to the tune of $ 410 million in two rounds, the food based app expanded its services by acquiring TongueStun. One of the primary reasons for Zomato to do this was to help users order food from cafeterias via the app. Furthermore, in an attempt to squash its constantly growing competition in the form of Swiggy, Zomato also acquired TechEagle, a service which drastically increased its delivery options!

4. Amazon buys Tapzo

Another company which is positioning itself for a productive 2019, Amazon acquired Tapzo in an attempt to improve its overall performance. This acquisition reportedly saved Amazon at least two years of time to build the kind of user base and services currently offered by Tapzo. Post this takeover, Amazon is going to integrate Tapzo into Amazon Pay, which will help in improving Amazon’s existing payment strategies.

5. Mettl gets bought over by Mercer

The acquisition of Mettl (an online HR automation service) by Mercer was important for not one, but two reasons. Firstly, it was the first takeover of this kind happening in this area and secondly, this acquisition saw an increase in the investment by 7 times of that which Mettl initially secured in the first round.

Looking at this last year, these acquisitions were quite extraordinary to say the least. If you think we missed out on any others which need to be mentioned on this list, comment and let us know!