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2005 Top Ten: M&A

Posted by Dave Raffo on December 29, 2005

Tags: Data Protection,  Other

Channel: Data Protection, Other

Storage mergers and acquistions came at a fast and furious pace in 2005.

With the industry still buzzing from the previous December's Symantec-Veritas deal, McData set the tone for 2005 with a $235 million acquisition of switch rival CNT Networks in mid-January. Further industry consolidation came in the form of billion-dollar deals: Sun picked up StorageTek in June, and Seagate gobbled its hard disk rival Maxtor in December.

But most of 2005's deals weren't about consolidation. There were a lot more cases of established storage companies picking up startups that provide them with technologies they perceive as hot but never got around to developing themselves.

Here's the largest acquisitions of 2005:

No. 10: Cisco Chomps FineGround