While smart companies are busy creating mobile groups to define their strategies, the smartest companies are realizing that mobile can permeate all parts of a business and that everyone needs to be part of the mobile group. This trend is clear in the latest Ernst & Young report on global technology mergers and acquisitions.
The volume of technology deals with non-technology buyers increased 30% last year, according to the report, and mobile was a key driver of many deals. Ingram Micro’s $840 million purchase of BrightPoint, which provides supply chain management and logistics services for mobile devices, exemplifies this trend. Already a leader in logistics, Ingram recognized the growing opportunity in mobile and saw an acquisition as the most direct path to this business.
Within the technology sector, major software players purchased mobile technologies, focusing in particular on mobile payments solutions. During the third quarter of last year, EBay’s PayPal bought Card.Io, creator of an app that turns a smartphone camera into a credit card reader, and Google bought prepaid card specialist TxVia.
Chipmakers also focused on mobile targets last year. Micron Technologies paid $2.5 billion for Japan’s Elpida, a maker of DRAM chips for mobile devices. Imagination Technologies paid $60 million for the operations of MIPS, creator of a chip architecture that competes with ARM. The deal was small but could be significant in the future. “By combining the technologies and skills of MIPS and Imagination, a leading multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, we believe that we can together create a powerful, well-differentiated and highly influential alternative to existing CPUs in the market,” said MIPS CEO Sandeep Vij.
