• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 12, 2015

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) related to companies supporting the Internet of Things continue to climb. So far in 2015, companies have spent $14.8 billion to purchase 39 companies related to IoT, surpassing the $14.3 billion spent for 62 such companies in 2014, according to data released Tuesday. 

In fact, the acquisitions drove numbers to reflect a record-breaking year. The deal-making accelerates innovation, according to Brian Partridge, VP of the 451 Research mobility team. As companies build out the hardware, software also will drive the M&A trend.

Many of the acquisitions were fueled by the hardware manufacturers, such as semiconductor companies like ARM, Intel and NXP. Each announced two or more deals in the space. 

The largest deal, NXP's $11.8 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor, focuses on connected cars. Amazon, ARM, Brocade, PTC, Silver Spring Networks and British Gas also announced acquisitions related to IoT, according to 451 Research.

The company's M&A KnowledgeBase lists more than 41,000 technology merger and acquisition transactions across 650 industry segments. It tracks about 41,000 global transactions across more than 650 segments of the technology and telecommunications markets.