Sometimes you start an entrepreneurial endeavor with a goal to have a big exit. Maybe your goal is to have the biggest exit of all time. If so, here are the tech acquisitions you have to beat.

AOL Acquires Time Warner 

In the first few days of the new millennium AOL announced what remains to be the largest acquisition of all time. The $164 billion dollar acquisition  was later called one of the worst decisions in corporate history.

AT&T Acquires DirectTV

After Comcast swooped up Time Warner, AT&T made moves to be able to compete with a massive acquisition of DirectTV for $48.5 Billion.

Comcast Acquires Time Warner

In 2014 we saw some consolidation in digital services. In what many saw as an anti-competitive move in the cable industry, Comcast bought Time Warner for $45 billion. This gives them 75% market share in the cable industry.

Facebook Acquires WhatsApp 

This huge acquisition made headlines when the announcement was made that Facebook would purchase WhatsApp for $19 billion. The purchase was so high because of the rapid growth of WhatsApp but at the time it was $42 per user.

Hewlett-Packard Acquires Compaq

In the biggest computer hardware acquisition of all-time, HP purchased fledging computer maker Compaq for just under $19 billion.

Hewlett-Packard Acquires Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

Ross Perot’s EDS was purchased by HP in 2008 for $13.9 billion for their IT services.

Symantec Acquires Veritas

In 2005, security software company Symantec purchased Veritas. Veritas had a rolodex of Fortune 500 companies and some complementary services that helped grow the company.

Google Acquires Motorola Mobility

Google has been trying to enter the hardware space for a while, recently releasing a computer and a phone. But in 2012 Google purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion and didn’t do much with it.

Oracle Acquires PeopleSoft

Oracle completed a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft in 2005 which wound up being accepted by PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion.