Five mega global deals of 2016

The year 2016 turned out to be a good year for mergers and acquisitions, mainly on the back of smaller deals. However, the M&A activity was tempered by extreme market volatility at the beginning of the year and global economic uncertainty which ensured that 2015's huge figure of $5 trillion remained untouched.

1. Monsanto-Bayer
In a deal that could create the world's largest agricultural behemoth, shareholders of US seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto approved a $66 merger with the German medicine and farm-chemical maker, Bayer AG. While officials from both the companies insist that the deal would benefit ranchers and growers and also enable the unified entity to address climate change in a better way, getting a regulatory approval for the deal might turn out to be an uphill task with critics talking of higher prices, environmental damage and reduction of competition. It is believed that the merger will create a company that will singlehandedly command more than 25 per cent of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides.

2. Softbank-ARM Holdings
In a deal that was hailed by British lawmakers as a vote of confidence despite Brexit, Japan's Softbank acquired ARM Holdings—the British innovator in smartphone technologies and IoT—for 24.3 billion pounds ($32 billion). ARM's acquisition now gives Softbank a foothold in 'Internet of Things' technology. At present, the company, which boasts nearly 64,000 employees, is one of Japan's biggest telecom providers with interests in solar power, robotics, ride booking and financial technology. China's Alibaba Group Holding might soon source energy-efficient CPUs developed by SoftBank Group's ARM Holdings for servers at its data centers. Softbank expects ARM to sell 1 trillion chips over the next two decades.

Flashback 2016: Year-End Special Flashback 2016: Year-End Special

3. Shire-Baxalta
Dublin-based Shire Pharmaceuticals completed its $32 billion merger with Chicago-based Baxalta, creating what Shire said was “the leading global biotechnology company focused on serving patients with rare diseases and other highly specialized conditions.” Shire said it expected to deliver double-digit compound annual top-line growth and forecast more than $20 billion in projected revenue by 2020. The company expected 65 per cent of its total annual revenues to come immediately from rare-disease products. Shire is now the global leader in rare diseases, with the number one rare diseases platform based on both revenue and pipeline programs.

Click to read all the happenings of 2016 in our year-ender special

4. Microsoft-LinkedIn
Microsoft’s deal to buy professional social network LinkedIn for $26.2bn officially closed after the European Commission cleared the acquisition by Microsoft. Microsoft now has all the regulatory approvals needed to complete the acquisition. Microsoft said it would continue to make its Office Add-in programme available to third-party professional social networking services. The Office Add-in program enables developers to integrate their services into Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel, providing users an enhanced experience using Office. The acquisition of LinkedIn, which has 433 million members including two million paid subscribers, is expected to help Microsoft to enter the niche of social tools.

5. Marriott-Starwood Hotels
Marriott International closed its $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, effectively uniting the Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz Carlton brands with Starwood's Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis properties. Marriott has now surpassed Hilton Worldwide's 773,000 rooms and 766,000 rooms that are part of of the Intercontinental Hotels Group family. The deal has made Mariott the largest hotel chain in the world, with some 30 brands falling under the Mariott umbrella. The chain now has more than 5,800 properties and 1.1 million rooms in more than 110 countries. Marriott outbid China's Anbang Insurance Group.