Microsoft bought more companies last year than any other tech giant

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Microsoft was the number-one buyer of smaller companies in 2015, even as titans like Google and Facebook seriously stepped down their sprees.

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Here's a chart showing the rate of acquisitions for the major tech companies from 2011 to 2015, courtesy of analyst firm CB Insights:

microsoft acquisitions

CB Insights

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Generally speaking, tech acquistitions slowed way down in 2015, as ballooning startup valuations ensured that most prospective purchases came with a steep price tag.

But Microsoft has really stepped up its shopping habits under CEO Satya Nadella from 2014 through today, with no signs of slowing down.

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Noteworthy Microsoft acquisitions include the $2.5 billion acquisition of "Minecraft" developer Mojang and the purchase of popular email app Acompli, which became Outlook for iPhone and Android.

Meanwhile, the data pretty clearly shows that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's monster run of buying startups, including blogging site Tumblr and video advertising service BrightRoll, is over, with only the $160 million purchase of Polyvore on the books for 2015.

Also worth mentioning: Of the 23 $1 billion-plus acquisitions made over this time period, Facebook racked up the single biggest deal with its 2014 purchase of WhatsApp for $22 billion.

Finally, it seems likely that all of this acqusition activity will be on the upswing this year.

As venture investors get skittish about the state of the market, once-hot startups like Dropbox and Snapchat are seeing their valuations dip - and leaders like Apple CEO Tim Cook have expressed their intention to take advantage of the lowered pricetags to buy up more tech and talent.

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