The Six Biggest Tech M&A Flops in the Past Five Years

Merger and acquisition (M&A) deals are some of the most exciting moves a company can make. The deals can produce eye-watering sums and are generally a win-win for both companies involved as well as their employees—but not always.

Some companies, such as Meta or Uber, have turned to M&A in place of innovation, and bought companies to acquire their features and audiences and to boost growth. Other companies turn to big-budget deals to cut off potential rivals before they get too big and acquihire their talent, such as Apple or Google. These tactics are more popular now than ever, as M&A activity hit an all-time high last year due to low interest rates and a boom in private equity funding.

But acquisitions are complex and require the consent of investors and regulators, whose jobs it is to make sure any combinations don’t violate any antitrust laws. This can lead even the most promising transactions to fall apart just before the finish line.

This past week, Zendesk’s own shareholders rejected its proposed $4.1 billion buyout of SurveyMonkey-owner Momentive. The decision, which was forced by activist investors Jana Partners and the Janus Henderson mutual fund, was a blow to the company’s expansion efforts.

But Zendesk is far from alone in its failed bid to expand its reach and services with a splashy acquisition. We took a look at the data and have compiled seven of the most high-profile U.S. tech M&A deals that never happened.

Zoom and Five9

Zoom entered into a doomed $14.7 billion deal to buy cloud contact center software company Five9 in July 2021. The deal didn’t last long and was scuttled by Five9’s investors just a couple of months later. At the time, Reuters reported that Zoom’s offer didn’t prove attractive enough, as the video communications giant was unwilling to add cash to its bid and was completely reliant on its stock as currency to pay for the transaction. However, if the buyout were successful, it would have allowed Zoom to give its customers an “integrated contact center offering,” according to a statement by CEO Eric Yuan.

Visa and Plaid

Visa shot into the headlines in January 2020 for its blockbuster agreement to buy data-focused fintech API Plaid. The deal was worth $5.3 billion but failed to win over the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition the following November. Shortly after hitting a regulatory wall, Visa and Plaid called off their plans to combine forces. At the time, Visa CEO Al Kelly stated that he believed the companies would eventually have won the legal battle but that the prolonged timeline made the deal no longer worthwhile.

Qualcomm and NXP

In 2018, Qualcomm pulled the plug on its $44 billion deal to buy rival chipmaker NXP after running into a regulatory quagmire. The U.S.-based company’s mega-deal to buy the Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer ran into regulatory issues in China of all places, as the country was required to sign off as it accounted for nearly two-thirds of the company’s revenue the year before. Interestingly, China didn’t say no to the deal; the country instead failed to issue a decision before the agreement’s cut-off date. It has been speculated that the failed deal was a byproduct of escalated U.S.-China trade tensions.

Facebook and Giphy

Social media titan Facebook (now called Meta) confirmed its $400 million acquisition of online GIF repository Giphy in May 2020. The deal closed the same month it was announced and was later investigated by the U.K.’s top antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In November 2021, the organization ruled that Facebook must sell Giphy, citing competition concerns “in both the supply of display advertising in the U.K. and in the supply of social media services worldwide.” Facebook has appealed the decision.

Emerson Electric and Rockwell Automation

In 2017, U.S. factory automation equipment maker Emerson Electric failed to buy its Milwaukee-based competitor Rockwell Automation for the third time. If the $29.8 billion deal had succeeded, it would have created an industrial robotics giant. Unlike other deals on the list, it fell through because of a lowball offer. Rockwell said that Emerson’s deal undervalued the company and could hurt its long-term growth.

Nvidia and Arm

Nvidia's $40 billion bid to buy rival chip designer Arm was challenged by regulators and eventually collapsed in February 2022. The deal, which was initially proposed in September 2020, would have united two power players in the semiconductor design industry and given Nvidia a heavy presence in the lucrative smartphone chip market. Among the concerns the U.S. Federal Trade Commission raised in its lawsuit was that the combination would provide Nvidia “the means and incentive to stifle innovative next-generation technologies.”