The biggest acquisitions of 2016, and who may be next

Some of the major deals include Yahoo, LinkedIn and Dollar Shave Club getting acquired

Yahoo's acquisition by Verizon for $4.8 billion, a deal that many had been waiting to happen for a pretty long time, marks yet another major deal in 2016, a year that is turning out to be one of the more active M&A periods in quite a while for major acquisitions. (I should know, since I write a weekly roundup of all the top mergers and acquisitions. You can check those out here)

Let's see how M&A has been shaping up so far. 

Biggest acquisitions of 2016

The most impactful M&A deal so far this year was Microsoft's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in June. It's hard to think of another deal that could top what was the largest purchase in social media history, and will no doubt have a major effect on Microsoft's enterprise software in the years to come. 

In terms of price-to-revenue multiple, the deal valued LinkedIn higher than Twitter, but lower than Facebook, on a price-to-revenue multiple. JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth pegged the purchase price of LinkedIn at 7.2x estimated 2016 revenue and 6.3x estimated 2017 revenue.

At the time of purchase, Facebook was sitting at a market cap of $331.36 billion, with estimated 2016 revenue of $26.04 billion, giving it a price-to-revenue multiple of 12.7x. Its estimated 2017 revenue is $34.69 billion, giving it a multiple of 9.6x. Twitter, meanwhile, had a market cap of $12.02 billion, with estimated 2016 revenue of $2.72 billion for a 4.4x multiple. The company is expected to make $3.28 billion in 2017, for a 3.7x multiple.

While none may approach that number, there have been a number of huge deals this year, a lot of them topping $1 billion in price. 

That includes three others in June made by: Salesforce, which acquired Demandware in a deal worth approximately $2.8 billion, valuing Demandware at $75 a share, a 56 percent premium to its last price; Vista Equity Partners, which acquired marketing automation software company Marketo for $1.79 billion, or $35.25 per share, at a 64 percent premium; and Symantec, which acquired enterprise security company Blue Coat for approximately $4.65 billion in cash.

AbbVie acquired Stemcentrx for $5.8 billion in April; Bango spent $3.75 billion to acquire Danal, a provider of mobile payment solutions; and there was the $1 billion that General Motors spent to buy Cruise Automation, a provider of a highway autopilot system. 

Most recently, Dollar Shave Club, a subscription service for grooming products, was acquired for $1 billion by Unilever and SoftBank bought semiconductor company ARM Holdings for $31 billion. 

Upcoming M&A - Twitter, Pandora, Zynga

When it comes to which companies are most likely to be acquired, you can't throw a rock without hitting someone who believes Twitter's sale is imminent.

In June, Bob Peck, analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, wrote in a note that a sale was "inevitable" if the company didn't start doing the hokey pokey, aka turning itself around. A post from BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield on Monday speculated that all of Twitter's activity in live streaming sports was a way to get major media companies interested in a purchase.

I even wrote a piece like this myself after rumor started going around that Twitter was going to be purchased by News Corp in January (please don't throw a rock at me).

The most frequently assumed target for such a purchase is Google, mostly because of how badly that company wants to get into social. Last summer, when Twitter's stock dove under $30 for the first time ever, speculation of this sort rang up again. There was also a rumor in June of last year that Bloomberg had made a bid, but that turned out to be false.

Another company that has been reportedly shopping itself around is Pandora, a company that has been losing revenue and listeners. However, the company got itself a new (well, actually old) CEO who has since said unequivocally that, no, the company isn't for sale. 

There have also been calls for once mighty, now struggling, mobile game company Zynga to also sell itself. So far there has been no movement, but the company did put its headquarters up for sale in February.

M&A in 2016

Even with all of those giant deals, global M&A so far this year is still down significantly from where it had been before the market slide. 

During the first half of 2016, there were 1,363 deals worth US$ 223.1 billion, a 41.6 percent decrease in value year-to-year, according to data from Mergermarket. That was also the lowest deal value and count since 2013. 

Deals for tech companies were also down;  there was $152 billion invested in 1,025 deals, a 25.9 value decrease.

(Image source: infinote.com)