It's no secret that the tech industry is dominated by a handful of companies. These five tech giants, known as GAFAM, FAAMG, MAGA and FAANG, have become household names and have had a huge impact on the way we live our lives. But what exactly are these five companies and what have been their biggest acquisitions?GAFAM stands for Google (Alphabet), Apple, Facebook (Meta), Amazon and Microsoft. This acronym was coined by Goldman Sachs to refer to the five major technology companies that account for up to 13% of the total value of S&P500 by market capitalization.
These companies are driving sociocultural evolution on a large scale and pushing social change at full speed. The biggest acquisition of our first GAFAM company was the purchase of Motorola in 2011. At the time, Motorola was the market leader in the home device and video solution business but was bleeding money due to five consecutive quarters of losses. Apple swooped in and bought Motorola for $12.5 billion, making it one of the largest acquisitions in tech history. Facebook's biggest acquisition was FriendFeed in 2009. FriendFeed was a social media aggregator that allowed users to combine feeds from multiple social networks into one stream. Although FriendFeed no longer exists, it is worth mentioning because it was a central component of Facebook's UX and without it, Facebook wouldn't be the same today. Microsoft has made an average of six acquisitions per year since its inception. Through its successful acquisitions and strategic mergers, Microsoft has deepened its dominance in many technological fields. Finally, Amazon has made some of the most significant acquisitions in tech history.
Its most notable purchase was Whole Foods Market in 2017 for $13.7 billion. This acquisition gave Amazon a foothold in the grocery industry and allowed them to expand their reach even further. Previously, when Netflix was among the ranks of the Big Five, the acronym FAANG (Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (Alphabet)) was used popularly and colloquially. Now that Netflix is no longer part of this group, GAFAM is the most commonly used acronym.
