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The Most Active Startup Acquirers Of The Past 3 Years Aren’t Always Who You’d Expect

View original at news.crunchbase.com
Crunchbase News - Funding Ma Title: The Most Active Startup Acquirers Of The Past 3 Years Aren’t Always Who You’d Expect Date: 2026-03-20 11:00 Source: https://news.crunchbase.com/ma/most-active-startup-acquirers-3-years-crm-openai-snowflake/ <p>Companies that buy a lot of startups don’t always have a lot in common.</p…
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  • The AI sector's appetite for acqui-hires and smaller purchases of earlier-stage startups continues to boost momentum

    60% confidence

  • Snowflake has 19 acquisitions to date

    60% confidence

  • The pace of startup M&A dealmaking remains fairly robust in 2026

    60% confidence

  • Salesforce has purchased at least 91 companies in the past 20 years

    60% confidence

  • Six companies made six or more known purchases in the past three years

    60% confidence

  • OpenAI has bought 16 companies in the past three years

    60% confidence

  • Salesforce, OpenAI and Snowflake are the most prolific acquirers of seed- and venture-backed startups in recent years

    60% confidence

  • 79 companies acquired three or more seed- or venture-backed startups in the past three years

    60% confidence

Data points we hold from this source

Salesforce · total acquisitions91 companies
OpenAI · total acquisitions16 companies
Snowflake Inc. · total acquisitions19 companies
What we know · the intelligence behind this page
Live from the substrate
What we're seeing
Q4 2026 Clinical Catalyst Season: Big-Pharma Data Flow, Regulatory Milestones, and a Thin AI-Drug Fringe
October 2026 conferences (EASD, IGCS, NACFC, HFSA) are producing a dense run of late-stage readouts from Novo Nordisk, Lilly, Roche, Bayer, Vertex and Galderma. Regulatory milestones are scheduled behind them: the ivonescimab BLA PDUFA date on 2026-11-14, FDA acceptance of Roche's vamikibart BLA, and Scholar Rock's EMA resubmission. The AI-and-finance angle is peripheral. It consists of the AI-designed drug Rentosertib and QAIAx, a speculative microcap whose trial claims (the QIII pilot, anticipated 2027-01-01, and a patent update) are forecasts and filings rather than data, so they warrant skepticism.
Our read on the data ›
Signals we're tracking
EPKINLY Regulatory-Clinical Success Cascade
High probability of expanded label indications, additional combination approvals, and competitive positioning strength in follicular lymphoma market. Predicts positive commercial uptake and potential accelerated review for related indications.
Patterns we're watching ›
Where sources disagree
ING Group
Both facts record the same metric (shares_outstanding) for ING Group at the identical observation date (2025-12-31). FACT A states 2,902,437,688 shares; FACT B states 2,902 million shares (2,902,000,000). The difference is 437,688 shares (~0.015%). This is a genuine value conflict, though the discrepancy appears to result from FACT B rounding to the nearest million while FACT A provides the precise count.
We flag conflicts openly ›
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