Salesforce? Twilio? Workday? Get in line! Microsoft spent $9 billion on acquisitions during its last fiscal year, with the blockbuster $7.5 billion purchase of GitHub the absolute highlight.
There were 19 other companies in that list.
This year, though, experts are speculating that the technology giant will continue its buying spree, with a number of firms on its radar that the company could try to buy. Expected names, nothing too concrete in this list, as you would expect.
But with rivals like Google Cloud also mulling big acquisitions in 2020, there is a every chance that Redmond will open its wallet in order to stay ahead in the cloud game.
Speaking of the cloud, things start with Salesforce, which would be a very attractive acquisition for Microsoft. It has a less than 5% share of front-office applications, which is basically software that helps salespeople keep track of their customers.
And this is something Salesforce specializes in, though its market cap of about $168 billion right now will pose quite a challenge to whoever makes a move for it.
Low likelihood of this deal given the sheer size of this company, but there also remains a possibility that Google may swoop in.
Autodesk is another firm that may tempt Microsoft, who could acquire it and then use its architecture, construction and manufacturing software to expand its Office 365 productivity suite in a more technical direction.
Workday and Twilio also make this interesting list.
And you can take a look at the complete lineup at this Business Insider article here.
