10 Biggest Tech Acquisitions in History

1. AOL buys Time Warner – $106 billion

Putting this particular business deal at the top of the list is bit controversial due to the fact that while AOL is a tech company, Time Warner is more of a media giant. Even so, there is still a tech company involved, which is why we decided to include it on the list.

In 2000, America Online announced that it was going to acquire Time Warner for a staggering price of $106 billion, combining its own online services with Time Warner’s media and cable assets.

Given how massive the deal was, everyone thought that this was a huge gamble and that it would be difficult to create a perfect merger between the two companies. 15 years later, it’s obvious that things didn’t go smoothly, especially since many describe this as the “worst merger” to ever take place.

At the time, both companies were looking to expand in the areas the other was specialized in. Mixing the individual company cultures, however, was no easy feat and resulted in one of the biggest problems of the deal.

The problems grew for the company and in 2002, following economic recession and the burst of what is now known as the dot com bubble, AOL announced a net loss of $99 billion. By 2009, AOL and Time Warner decided it was better to separate.

Ironically, in May 2015, Verizon Communications, one of Time Warner’s main competitors, announced plans to buy AOL for $4.4 billion, acquisition that completed a month later.

Even so, this continues to be at the top of the list of the 10 biggest tech acquisitions in history. 

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