Major IT companies looking to expand their technology portfolios and private equity firms buying IT vendors and solution providers account for many of the biggest mergers and acquisitions this year. And AI is a factor in many acquisitions. Here’s a look at the biggest tech mergers and acquisitions that have been announced, completed or are still in the works in 2024 (so far).

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Despite high interest rates and ongoing economic uncertainty, merger and acquisition activity has continued at a brisk pace across the IT industry in the first seven months of 2024.

The year (so far) has seen a number of significant acquisition deals (and a few divestitures) announced or completed involving IT vendors and solution providers. Most notable has been Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s blockbuster deal at the start of the year to buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion and the completion of Cisco Systems’ $28 billion acquisition of Splunk in March.

As with so much else in the IT industry today, AI technology has been a major driver in many mergers and acquisitions this year. In addition to being a factor in the Cisco-Splunk and HPE-Juniper deals, many smaller (under $1 billion) acquisitions this year involve established companies buying startups with leading-edge AI technology.

Some of this year’s AI technology-driven acquisition deals that weren’t big enough to make this Top 10 list, for example, included SAP’s $1.5 billion deal to buy WalkMe to boost its Joule AI copilot software; Nvidia’s $700 million acquisition of AI infrastructure management startup Run.ai; and AMD’s move to acquire large language model developer Silo AI for approximately $665 million.

While dollar value is a factor in the following ranking, some mergers and acquisitions have a greater impact on the IT industry in general, and the channel in particular, and that figures into the rankings. In many cases, including one that makes this list, the value of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Some 10-figure acquisition deals that just missed making this list but were nevertheless significant include CyberArk’s $1.54 billion acquisition of machine identity firm Venafi in May, Cognizant’s $1.3 billion deal to purchase engineering services specialist Belcan in June, and the $1.75 billion acquisition of AWS and Google partner Thoughtworks by private equity firm Apax Partners in August.

Even mergers and acquisitions that don’t happen can be big news in the IT industry. In April cloud application giant Salesforce was reported to be discussing an acquisition deal with big data software developer Informatica with an $11 billion price tag. And Google was reported to be close to acquiring CRM application company HubSpot and cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz–the latter for a reported whopping $23 billion–but those deals never came to pass.

Here’s a look at the IT industry’s biggest acquisition, merger and spinoff deals in 2024 (so far), starting with No. 10 and working up to No. 1. Some deals were unveiled last year and completed this year. Others have been announced but are still working their way through regulatory and/or shareholder approvals before they are wrapped up.

No. 10: Ahead Buys CDI In $3.7B Digital Transformation Channel Play

IT solution provider Ahead announced on Feb. 1 that it had acquired Computer Design & Integration (CDI) in a move the company said created a $3.7 billion global digital transformation powerhouse.

No dollar value was disclosed for the deal that combined two of the IT industry’s leading solution providers. Both were owned by private equity companies–CDI was sold to Ahead by One Equity Partners. Ahead was No. 30 on the 2024 CRN Solution Provider 500 while CDI was No. 57.

The acquisition not only provides Ahead with a deeper portfolio of technical capabilities in hybrid IT, cybersecurity and other areas, it also gives the solution provider a major presence in the Northeastern U.S. as well as expanded worldwide coverage.

No. 9: HPE To Sell 30 Percent Of Its Stake In H3C For $2.1B

On May 24 Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it had struck a deal to sell 30 percent of its shares of China-based H3C to Chinese IT provider Unisplendour for approximately $2.1 billion. The transaction was expected to be completed by Aug. 31.

H3C is HPE’s exclusive provider of HPE servers, storage and associated technical services in China.

HPE had owned a 49 percent stake in H3C. With the sale, HPE’s stake is reduced to 19 percent. HPE said it also had an option to sell its remaining 19 percent share of H3C at a later time.

No. 8: OpenText Sells App Modernization Business To Rocket Software For $2.275B

OpenText’s $5.8 billion acquisition of Micro Focus, announced in August 2022 and completed in January 2023, was one of the IT industry’s most significant acquisition deals in recent years. That acquisition included Micro Focus’ mainframe software business.

On May 1 of this year OpenText completed the divestiture of the mainframe software and application modernization and connectivity (AMC) business to Rocket Software, a Bain Capital portfolio company, for $2.275 billion.

Rocket Software, based in Waltham, Mass., provides IT modernization and IT automation services.

OpenText said it planned to use the proceeds from the sale to reduce the company’s debt by $2 billion.

No. 7: Perficient To Be Acquired By Private Equity Firm EQT For $3B

This year (so far) has seen a number of acquisitions of IT vendors and solution providers by private equity firms.

On May 6 global IT solution provider and digital consulting firm Perficient announced that it had agreed to be acquired and taken private by Swedish private equity company EQT for approximately $3 billion. The all-cash deal amounted to about $76 per share, a 75 percent premium over Perficient’s share price at the time.

Perficient, ranked No. 56 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, is a global business with operations in North and South America, Europe and India. The company, which generated $907 million in revenue in 2023, has about 7,000 employees across more than 40 locations worldwide and counts about 300 of the Fortune 1000 companies as clients.

Perficient and EQT expect to complete the acquisition by the end of 2024. Until then Perficient’s shares continue to trade on the Nasdaq exchange at around $75 per share.

No. 6: T-Mobile Acquiring UScellular Wireless Operations, Other Assets For $4.4B

In the latest wave of consolidation within the telecommunications industry, T-Mobile announced on May 28 that it would buy substantially all of UScellular’s wireless operations including UScellular’s wireless customers and stores along with certain specified spectrum assets.

The deal’s value was put at approximately $4.4 billion in a combination of cash and T-Mobile’s assumption of up to $2.0 billion of debt in an exchange offer made to “certain UScellular debtholders.” (UScellular is retaining some of its spectrum and its towers and T-Mobile will lease space on some of those towers.)

T-Mobile said that with the deal it can put more heat on its competitors with lower prices, faster transmission speeds and better 5G performance. “With this deal T-Mobile can extend the superior Un-carrier value and experiences that we’re famous for to millions of UScellular customers and deliver them lower-priced, value-packed plans and better connectivity on our best-in-class nationwide 5G network,” T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said in a statement at the time.

The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2025.

The T-Mobile-UScellular deal followed news in March that IT communications company Viavi Solutions would buy telecommunications test specialist Spirent Communications for approximately $1.3 billion.

No. 5: KKR To Buy VMware’s End-User Computing Business For $4B

As part of the aftershocks of Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of virtualization giant VMware in 2023, private equity firm KKR announced on Feb. 26 a deal to buy VMware’s End User Computing business for approximately $4 billion.

Broadcom had said it would find a new home for VMware’s EUC division, which covers VMWare’s VDI solutions, when it closed the VMware acquisition in November. Since then it has ordered solution providers to parse out deals for the End User Computing products, including Workspace ONE and Horizon, separately from VMware’s other cloud products.

KKR said it expected to complete the acquisition later this year, whereupon the EUC division will become a stand-alone company “with greater access to growth capital and a dedicated strategic focus on empowering customers and partners worldwide with innovative digital workspace solutions,” KKR said in a statement at the time.

No. 4: Thoma Bravo To Acquire Darktrace for $5.3B

One of the biggest private equity firm acquisitions of the year so far came on April 26 when Thoma Bravo announced a deal to buy Darktrace, a pioneer of cybersecurity AI technology, for approximately $5.3 billion.

Darktrace was founded in 2013 with the idea that AI and machine learning could be used to improve the detection of cyberattacks. The company went public in 2021 but was reportedly in acquisition talks with Thoma Bravo as early as 2022.

Thoma Bravo has been an active acquirer of cybersecurity companies in recent years with a portfolio that currently includes Proofpoint, Sophos and SailPoint, in addition to holding stakes in a number of other security vendors.

No. 3: IBM Buying HashiCorp for $6.4B

On April 24 IT giant IBM said it had struck a deal to buy HashiCorp, developer of the Terraform “infrastructure-as-code” platform, in a $35-per-share cash deal valued at $6.4 billion.

IBM said that with the acquisition of HashiCorp and its suite of hybrid- and multi-cloud life-cycle management tools the company can create a comprehensive, end-to-end hybrid cloud platform “to help clients grappling with today’s AI-driven application growth and complexity.”

IBM, for example, cited the combination of Terraform’s automation capabilities with the configuration management functionality of its Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as one example of potential synergies that will help it compete for a bigger share of the $1.1 trillion total addressable cloud market.

HashiCorp shareholders approved the deal July 15, and the two companies look to complete the acquisition before the end of the year. But the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing the deal and on July 15 IBM and HashiCorp acknowledged receiving a second request for information from the FTC, indicating a deeper anti-trust review, according to a Bloomberg story.

No. 2: Cisco Completes $28B Splunk Acquisition

On March 18 Cisco said it had completed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk in a move to combine the two companies’ cybersecurity and observability strengths and create what company executives described as a distinctive, AI-powered data platform.

“As one of the world’s largest software companies, we will revolutionize the way our customers leverage data to connect and protect every aspect of their organization as we help power and protect the AI revolution,” Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins said in a statement, following the completion of the all-cash, $157-per-share acquisition deal.

The two companies initially announced the acquisition agreement on Sept. 21, 2023.

Since the acquisition Cisco and Splunk have been integrating their operations and product lines with Cisco’s observability development team moved into Splunk. Splunk President and CEO Gary Steele, meanwhile, was named Splunk general manager and Cisco go-to-market president. At Cisco Live and Splunk .conf24 events in June Robbins and Steele vowed that the acquisition wouldn’t slow Splunk’s innovation efforts.

No. 1: HPE Buying Juniper Networks In $14B Deal That Sets Up AI Networking Battle With Cisco

HPE sought to step up the pressure on Cisco in the enterprise networking arena when on Jan. 9 it announced a $14 billion deal to acquire AI-native network platform provider Juniper Networks.

HPE said the deal to buy Juniper would provide it with additional AI networking muscle and effectively double its networking business, creating what it called in a statement a “new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value.”

Through the deal HPE will gain, among other assets, Juniper’s Mist AI capabilities, its campus and branch networking business, and a more robust security technology portfolio. Juniper will also bring its large pool of MSP partners with the acquisition.

The deal appears to be on track for completion in early 2025. Juniper shareholders approved the $40-per-share, all-cash deal in April and the acquisition has won approval from European Union and U.K. regulators.