The stakes of disruption are too high: Companies that are generally unaffiliated with the tech industry made more than USD 125 bn worth of acquisitions in 2016, up from USD 20 bn five years ago, writes Leslie Picker for the New York Times. Most of them found that building tech in-house was “painstaking” and could easily get leapfrogged by startups, she says. “It’s better to acquire disruptive technology than to be disrupted by that technology,” co-head of tech M&A at Morgan Stanley Anthony Armstrong said. Examples include Walmart acquiring e-commerce startup Jet.com, General Electric buying off-site workers and equipment repairs software provider ServiceMax, and century-old industrial conglomerate Roper Technologies signed a deal with Deltek, an enterprise-software provider. Automakers such as General Motors and Daimler have taken large stakes in ride-sharing applications, including Lyft and Hailo.

…In 2016, the number of tech companies sold to non-tech companies surpassed those acquired by tech companies for the first time since the internet era began, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Excluding private equity buyers, 682 tech companies were purchased by a company in an industry other than technology, while 655 were acquired by tech companies. Of the 45,416 transactions announced last year, 15% were acquisitions of technology companies, more than any other sector, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.