Who’s Next in Tech’s Merger Wave

SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son announcing SoftBank's purchase of ARM Holdings this month. Photo by Bloomberg.

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As the recent sales of LinkedIn, ARM Holdings, Dollar Shave Club and Yahoo suggest, acquisitions are once again in vogue for bigger companies looking for growth. And venture capitalists are increasingly recommending to founders that they consider selling.

At the same time, mutual fund investors in private tech firms are signaling higher expectations that some startups will be sold. BlackRock, for instance, disclosed in securities filings this past spring it estimated there was a 75% probability that consumer electronics firm Jawbone would be sold in the next three years, up from the 50% probability BlackRock had put in January.