Publish date: 3 December, 2024This year has been an extremely dynamic one in the field of acquisitions in the technology industry. Some of the ecosystem’s emblems – old and new – took part in them.
The Bulgarian tech scene also offered significant events featuring a number of key names, most of whom are also part of H512.com’s Job Board. According to the Emerging Europe M&A Report 2023-2024 by EMIS and law firm CMS, there have been a total of 82 mergers and acquisitions in the country , including some in the IT sector.
Before we turn our attention to them, however, a quick look at the world – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has absorbed Juniper Networks for $14 billion. Cisco responded with an even more eye-popping deal, acquiring Splunk for $28 billion.
Meanwhile, the battle in networking technology resulted in two blockbuster acquisitions. IBM continued its string of deals, this time taking aim at cloud infrastructure provider HashiCorp, for which it paid $6.4 billion.
Q1: BRIGHT, myPos, Shkolo …
At home, 2024 started with a landmark acquisition. The Bulgarian application for the organization of processes in the education sector Shkolo became part of the British Juniper Education. Its integration into the ranks of the largest provider of classroom software solutions in the UK opened new horizons for the development of the Bulgarian platform.
The strong start to the year in terms of deals in the country continued in February. Global digital technology company Virtusa Corporation announced that it acquired Bulgarian complex IT solutions developer BRIGHT, while Accenture became the owner of data analytics platform GemSeek.
Both deals again involve the ubiquitous AI – at BRIGHT they use the technology to create digital transformation solutions, and at GemSeek they use it to analyse user experience across industries.
But that wasn’t all. Telelink Business Services invested €9 million in the acquisition of Croatia’s Sedam IT. Spanish travel group Amadeus, which has an office in Sofia, bought out Portuguese facial recognition systems developer Vision-Box for €320m.
Advent International, for its part, finalised the acquisition of Bulgaria’s myPOS. The deal was announced in November 2023 but needed regulatory approval. The US investment fund also acquired the parent company of fintech solutions provider Nuvei. The value of the deal was $6.3 billion.
The end of the first quarter of 2024 was also marked by several other landmark deals. Bulgarian-founded US automation platform Pliant.io was acquired by tech giant IBM for an unspecified sum. Novus, the UK’s first “neobank”, which combines financial sector traditions with ESG, became part of Bulgarian payment services provider Paynetics.
Q2: Dreamix, Kin Carta, Sirma…
In early spring, in April, Bulgarian software developer Dreamix became part of global financial sector digital transformation consultancy Synechron.
Having acquired Bulgaria-based Melon in 2022, Kin Carta was in turn officially acquired by Valtech. The deal was valued at EUR 280 million. The digital consultancy thus expanded its presence in the UK, Latin America, the US and Southeast Europe.
The monthly list was closed by SaaS e-commerce solutions startup Rush, which became part of technology company Shop Circle.
Bianor Holding continued to make headlines in May – this time with its acquisition of 100% of Digital Lights and 51% of Prime Holding. The three companies came together under the name Wiser Technology and focused on developing high-tech solutions for the telecommunications, defense, automotive and financial industries.
Summer came and the acquisitions slowed, but far from stopped. In June, Sirma Group Holding began a consolidation process involving six of its subsidiaries. The holding also acquired 51% of Romanian software developer Roweb Development.
Meanwhile, it became clear that the British CloudM Software has bought the Varna-based software company BeLean, founded by Nikolay Mitev.
Explore more
Q3: Acronis, EPAM, Milestone Systems…
In the lean July of deals, SaaS web hosting solutions provider NitroPack came under the spotlight. It was acquired by the American WP Engine, and its creators – Georgi Petrov and Mikhail Stoychev – announced the launch of a new project – Uxify. It will continue to develop NitroPack ‘s core technology – Navigation AI.
After parting ways in 2017, Arcules and Milestone Systems have merged again, combining their video analytics and video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) development services.
At the end of the month, one of the first system integrators in the country, Paraflow, got new owners in the face of another Bulgarian company, Sinvexa.
Swedish investment fund EQT acquired a major stake in Acronis in August. Although the cybersecurity company’s headquarters are located in Switzerland and Singapore, its offices in the country employ more than 450 people, making it an important player in the local technology market.
This is also true for US IT services provider EPAM. The company has been present in Bulgaria for 10 years, and in late summer acquired the local team of Swiss financial sector automation software developer Move Digital.
The autumn started with the news that the US company Progress, which has more than 600 employees in the country, acquired the ShareFile platform, part of the Cloud Software Group. According to TechCrunch, the deal is worth $875 million. With this, Progress added tens of thousands of customers to its base. Sirma Group Holding completed its consolidation, which began in June.
Q4: Ontotext, ROITI, Wiser Technology…
October came with more news from Bianor Holding (Wiser Technology), which acquired Serbian software developer Badin Soft.
Two more Bulgarian companies expanded their teams. Ontotext has announced a merger with Austria’s Semantic Web Company, with the merger starting to operate under a new brand – Graphwise. At the same time, IT services provider ROITI joined the ranks of Germany’s Dataciders Group.
But these were far from the biggest deals of the month. That prize went to Yettel ‘s owner, PPF. For 2.15 billion euros, its telecom business in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia and Hungary came under the management of Emirates Telecommunications Group Company. The majority owner of the company is the United Arab Emirates.
At the end of the year, the telecoms sector was in focus due to another tech deal. The owner of VIVACOM acquired another business in the country in Elemental.TV, the provider of online TV for Bulgarians abroad. United Group owns Nova TV and earlier in the year completed the acquisition of Bulsatcom following clearance from the Competition Protection Commission (CPC).
What can we expect in the new year?
Traditionally in 2024, the biggest deals in the country are being done with the participation of foreign companies. According to global research platform Lexology, they most often come from EU member states, the UK, the US and Switzerland. Of the bloc’s representatives, organisations from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Cyprus are the most active on the Bulgarian market.
The IT industry has been one of the main M&A pitches in Bulgaria over the past year, along with the energy sector. This trend is expected to continue in 2025 , despite the “negative effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflicts in the Middle East and the overall instability of the global market”.
“Bulgaria has managed to build a robust technology ecosystem that is creating increasingly innovative companies that, with their global reach, will continue to be attractive targets for foreign investors in 2025,” Lexology wrote in concluding its report on the country.
