It often feels like consolidation of the middle tier of an industry happens all at once. When the first industry heavyweight makes a strategic acquisition, investment bankers, VCs, and entrepreneurs start salivating, knowing that other industry players are likely to react with defensive purchases of their own. Some recent examples at hand are health insurance for the Medicare and Medicaid programs, social CRM, human resources management software, IT services, and dynamic display ad optimization.
IT services - 16 months, $23.4Bn start to finish:
