top10-dealsIn the wake of Yahoo’s blockbuster $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr, Bloomberg News has produced a pretty nifty chart of the top 50 acquisitions of private technology companies.

Skype leads the pack, but not Microsoft’s $8.5 billion buy in 2011 since at the time the Internet communications giant was owned by publicly-traded eBay. In fact, eBay’s $2.5 billion purchase of Skype in 2005 ranks number one, followed by Microsoft’s $1.2 billion purchase of Yammer last year.

Amazon.com also has two of the top 10 — including its $775 million buyout of robot maker KIva Sytems and $545 million purchase of Diapers.com parent Quidsi. In fact, consumer Internet companies — if you toss Skype in that bucket — make up six of the top 10 deals.

Full list of the top 50 here. Who could be next up on this list?

A couple fast-growing consumer Internet companies — like Pinterest, Waze, Fab and Zulily — come to mind.

Tumblr.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-largeThis much is certain. Big technology companies are sitting on mountains of cash, and they will likely deploy it as they look to stay in front of rivals.

Nonetheless, the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ M&A report found that mergers and acquisitions actually dropped 38 percent during the first quarter as just 40 deals were completed. Deal value also plummeted to $8.3 billion, down 60 percent. (That number likely will go up in the second quarter, based in part by the Tumblr deal).

“Driven by the global macroeconomic uncertainties, the first quarter of 2013 saw technology deal volume and values drop unexpectedly to a four-year low as businesses prioritized operations above M&A,” said Rob Fisher, PwC’s U.S. technology industry deals leader.  “Nevertheless, strong fundamentals, record cash levels and high equity valuations as well as promising recent announcement make Q1 M&A seem more like a ‘pause’ than a trend.”’

 

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