How Do Top Acquirers Compare in Technology Mergers? New Evidence from an S&P Taxonomy

•We compare GAFAM with other top acquirers in technology mergers (2010–2020)•GAFAM has more M&As per firm; acquires younger and more consumer-facing targets•We use S&P taxonomy to define acquirer-target distance in technology categories•GAFAM M&As are less concentrated in categories, adjacent-first-and-then-expand•We find no evidence that GAFAM’s M&A deters other acquirers from the same categories