IoT, AI and autonomous vehicles help spur tech M&A economy, says new report

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to go at a steady pace, according to the latest analysis from Hampleton Partners. In total, 239 ‘assets’ have been acquired from a total of 198 buyers between 2015 and the first half of this year in the IoT space. The total number of deals made in the first half of this year approached 50, albeit not quite at the same level of 2015, where the first six months of that year pushed 60. According to Hampleton, the top acquirers were Verizon, ARM, and Intel. The latter recently concluded its $15.3 billion (£11.9bn) deal for Mobileye to help move forward in autonomous cars, while ARM made five acquisitions before itself being bought for $32bn by SoftBank. Verizon made a total of five acquisitions, including Sensity Systems and LQD WiFi.