In 2020, the IT sector saw a number of landmark mergers and acquisitions. In Switzerland, Liberty Global bought Sunrise, Veeam and Avaloq were acquired, while internationally, Nvidia took control of ARM and Salesforce acquired Slack. Find out more about the main transactions and developments in Switzerland and French-speaking Switzerland.
The pandemic did nothing to dampen activity in the IT sector in 2020, with numerous mergers and acquisitions taking place internationally, in Switzerland and in French-speaking Switzerland. Here's a look back at the most significant events.
One of the most significant events in the Swiss IT sector was the sale of Sunrise to Liberty Global for 6.8 billion Swiss francs, a year after the failed takeover of UPC Suisse. In another major transaction, backup solutions provider Veeam, based in Switzerland since 2012, was bought by an investment fund for $5 billion. The Japanese NEC Group also acquired Swiss banking software specialist Avaloq for over CHF 2 billion.
On a global scale, several major acquisitions took place in 2020. In the microprocessor sector, American Nvidia took control of ARM, a British leader in chip design, for $40 billion. In software, Salesforce bought the collaborative solution Slack for $28 billion. Another highlight was the abandonment of Xerox's proposed $34 billion takeover of HP Inc. On the security front, Dell sold its RSA subsidiary to a consortium of investors for around $2 billion.
IBM also made a strategic decision to divest its infrastructure management business to focus more on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, forecasting that these new activities will account for 60% of its revenues.
In French-speaking Switzerland, several important changes have taken place. In January 2020, the former management of Veltigroup acquired Ixion Services, creating the Ansam Group, which employs over 180 people. This group quickly signed a strategic partnership with Swisscom. In February, Lausanne-based Exel Informatique joined Silicom Group, which had already absorbed Simnet the previous year.
The wave of takeovers continued with the acquisition of web agency Details by the Ilem Group in July, and the purchase of security and infrastructure specialist Telecom Systems by SCRT in August. In November, the French group Cheops Technology acquired DFI Service in Geneva, marking its first move abroad. Shortly afterwards, Dentsu merged its Swiss companies Isobar and Namics to form Merkle, a digital group of 1,200 specialists.
Finally, Delémont-based dbi services announced that family office Verium had taken a majority stake in its capital. 2020 also saw digital.switzerland merge with ICTswitzerland, and several service providers adopt new identities, including the Eyra Group (formerly Altea) and Positive Thinking Company (formerly Serial).
The year 2020 was thus marked by sustained activity in the IT sector, with strategic mergers and acquisitions both locally and internationally.
Source : ICTjournal
