Intel’s Altera Buy Foreshadows Future Of Tech, Activism – The Edge Sees Dominance

By Benjamin Horney, Staff Writer, Law360:

When Altera Corp. agreed to be acquired by Intel Corp. for $54 per share on Monday, it marked a massive melding of two industry leaders in a sector poised to see continued consolidation, in addition to being a boon for activist investors seeking to show they can effect change even without engaging in a true proxy fight. The deal — which actually marks the second big-money deal involving chipmakers in the past week after Avago Technologies Ltd. last Thursday agreed to buy rival Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion — gives the New Jersey-headquartered tech giant a chip-making specialist in California based Altera that is expected to help it continue its reign as one of the mainstays of the tech world.

Jim Osman, CEO of The Edge Consulting Group, said Intel’s acquisition of Altera highlights the tech industry’s dominance of the deal-making landscape, with no slowdown on the horizon. Data from Dealogic backs that up — as of last month, the technology sector had seen almost 2,000 more deals in 2015 than the next-busiest industry, health care.

In addition, Osman pointed out that this deal, like many of the largest and most buzzworthy tech deals of late, involved an activist investor pushing for change. “Following our prediction that activism and M&A will continue to be a main driver, tech stocks have been in the limelight over the last year and have been drawing a lot of attention from shareholders involved in corporate activism,” he said in an email to Law360.

According to Osman, such consolidation in the industry should continue for the foreseeable future, with potential next-in-line players including the likes of Oracle Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc.

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