10 Biggest Tech Acquisitions in History

3. HP buys Compaq – $25 billion

In 2001, HP announced yet another massive acquisition, entering a deal with Compaq to purchase it for $25 billion in stock. They hoped through this move to be a closer competitor to IBM, especially since their total revenue would put them in IBM’s range.

They also hoped to compete better with Sun Microsystems, as well as with the likes of Dell in the personal computer department.

Compaq was founded in 1982 and created and sold computers and various other products and services. In the 1990s it was one of the largest PC systems supplies. The name continued to be used following the HP acquisition, but it was discontinued in 2013 without much fuss.