‘HP-EDS deal to be biggest in global tech'

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 1403 hrs The proposed acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) by US technology giant Hewlett-Packard for over 13 billion dollars is the largest M&A deal to be announced in the global technology space so far in 2008, a latest report says.

Hewlett-Packard would acquire technology services firm Electronic Data Systems for an estimated 13.9 billion dollars and the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2008, a HP statement said.

The transaction has allowed global investment bank JP Morgan (USD 295.2 billion) to overtake Goldman Sachs (USD 291.5 billion) in the global M&A Advisory ranking tables in 2008 year-to-date, according to data compiled by global consultancy Dealogic.

Among the top five merger and acquisition deals in the technology space totalling 31.1 billion dollars year-to-date, the most targeted nation is the United States (4), followed by Finland, the report pointed out.

In these five deals, US-based firms lead the pack with four companies backing the acquisition and the remaining two being from Finland and Italy.

However, the total technology M&A volume has mellowed down to about 84 billion dollars so far this year, as compared to 92 billion dollars in the corresponding period in 2007.

However, there is an increase in the number of such deals to 1, 838 from the year-ago period's 1,545.

"The US is the most targeted nation for the Technology sector with USD 45.2 billion via 554 deals, followed by Japan with USD 7.7 billion through 195 deals and the UK with USD 6.9 billion via 149 deals," the report stated.

Following EDS, the second biggest M&A in the global Technology sector was the USD 8.2 billion deal between Oracle and BEA Systems in January.

Further in May, Italy-based Finmeccanica acquired US-based DRS Technology for USD 4.6 billion, followed by the deal of US-based United Technologies' with Diebold for three billion dollars in February.