Hacker News Reader

Comment by wyldfire | Hacker News Reader

It seems like early 2018 is rife with acquisitions and mergers. Was the recent tax law a factor? Seems like these acquisitions take so much time that it couldn't have been dependent on that. So why all this activity?

View on HN

Wages didn't really recover after 2008. The larger the company, the more flush with cash they've become. Nearly every major industry has been going through mergers. Dow Chemical and Dupont. Bayer and Monsanto. Disney and Fox. Charter and Time Warner.

Given the fact that Trump and the GoP are in control right now, the FTC's position is weaker than it's ever been. We'll need anti-trust legislators in 10 to 15 years or disparity in the US will be at an all-time high.

M&A has been the strategy of just about all major companies for the last 18 months, and because of the lead time, I think 2018 is going to be even busier.

Huge changes in computing and technology, driven by the cloud in good part: big data, AI and machine learning, chatbots, and containers, microservices, etc. The major players all want a part of these so are acquiring innovators in each of these spaces.

It's a great time to be a developer!

New financial year, fresh budgets

Except Red Hat is financially now in Q4.

End of financial year... budgets to spend?

Unlikely. Most of the acquiring companies, including Red Hat have fiscal years that don't end on Dec 31.

FTA:

> ... fourth fiscal quarter or fiscal year ending Feb. 28, 2018.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com