Is Tech M&A Back?

Check out this impressive lineup of tech M&A deals announced this quarter:

* Wiz acquired by Google for $32B (with a $3.2B break-up fee)

* Ampere Computing acquired by SoftBank for $6.5B

* Moveworks acquired by ServiceNow for $2.9B

* Next Insurance (a Fabrica Ventures portfolio company) acquired by Munich Re for $2.6B

* Weights and Biases acquired by Coreweave for $1.7B

* Egnyte (a Fabrica Ventures portfolio company) acquired by GI Partners and TA Associates for $1.5B

* NinjaTrader acquired by Kraken for $1.5B

* DataStax acquired by IBM for over $1B

* Gretel acquired by Nvidia for over $300M

So, are the floodgates finally opening?

Over the past three years, securing regulatory approval has become a major hurdle, dragging tech M&A activity down to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The most high-profile example is Adobe’s $20B bid for Figma, which was ultimately scrapped after more than a year of regulatory deadlock. Even more frustrating for companies was being stuck in regulatory limbo, with deals hanging in uncertainty for long periods.

Inorganic growth has played a major role in helping Silicon Valley companies expand their platforms. Take Salesforce, for example: it began with core CRM, then moved into analytics with the acquisition of Tableau, integration with Mulesoft, and communication with Slack — each acquisition adding a new layer to its ecosystem and deepening the moat. You can acquire a new product and sell it to your installed base, and/or acquire customers and cross-sell your existing products.

Meanwhile, with IPO thresholds now hovering around $300M in ARR, many unicorns may find limited upside as standalone companies — but could be highly valuable additions to a broader platform.

Conclusion

Will the new administration take a more tech M&A-friendly stance? Early signs suggest the pendulum may be swinging back.

Innovation is an alpha wild stallion — unpredictable, untamable, and beyond the foresight of regulators. Remember, even titans like IBM and Intel were once seen as invincible…  until they weren’t.