Insider recently asked nine industry analysts which companies might be next on Microsoft's shopping list as it looks to bolster its existing businesses and break into new ones via acquisition. 'Microsoft is on the M&A warpath over the next 12 to 18 months and Nuance could be the first step in an increased appetite for deals in 2021,' Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a recent note to clients. 'The company has proven to be a good acquirer – accelerating the momentum in their two most recent large acquisitions LinkedIn and GitHub.'Įxperts say that with its surging market cap of near $2 trillion - and its leading rivals slowed down by regulatory scrutiny - we can expect to see Microsoft open its wallet for companies large and small through the remainder of the year and beyond. 'Microsoft should step up M&A,' Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday. The company's third-quarter revenue was up 19% to $41.7 billion, above Wall Street estimates but apparently below many investors' expectations as stock fell 3% after the report to less than $254 per share. The company has the money to spend, disclosing this week that it has $125 billion cash on hand after the pandemic forced a shift to remote work and led to a boom in Microsoft's cloud and productivity software. It also previously bid on the US operations of viral video app TikTok, and was reportedly in ill-fated talks with Pinterest for what would have been multibillion-dollar deal. Meanwhile, Microsoft is said to have bid as much as $12 billion to acquire group chat platform Discord, which reportedly rejected the offer. The company recently agreed to pay as much $19.7 billion for Nuance Communications, which provides artificial intelligence-powered assistance for health practitioners, in a deal that came not terribly long after its purchase of video game publisher Zenimax Media last year. Microsoft is on a multibillion-dollar shopping spree. Experts named 21 firms that could be next on Microsoft's shopping list, from consultants to Twitter.Microsoft's earnings report this week disclosed it has $125 billion cash on hand.Microsoft is on a shopping spree, recently buying health-AI company Nuance for $19.7 billion.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Linkedin is a microsoft company