Technology company acquisitions loom

LAST YEAR chipmaker Intel kicked off what's starting to look like another round of mergers and acquisitions in the information technology industry by buying the insecurity firm McAfee for $7.68bn, and Microsoft just announced that it will splash out $8.5bn to acquire the voice over internet (VoIP) and chat messaging company Skype.

Big IT companies are flush with cash and they're probably not going to spend it all buying back their own stock and issuing dividends, so there will likely be some more takeovers in the industry. Our sister IT news web site V3 has a rundown on some of the companies that might be in the crosshairs for upcoming acquisitions in its Top 10 technology takeover targets. µ