February 2015 saw some interesting activity. The $6.3 billion merger of Staples and Office Depot and the $1.6 Billion purchase of Orbitz by Expedia are two examples of sectors experiencing massive consolidation. There was a big buy in the communications and IT space with Harris paying $4.75 billion for Excelis to establish a 23,000 person company. There was a big data center play with UK-based Telecity Group paying $2.2 billion for Interxion Holdings. Microsoft made a couple of acquisitions, paying $200 million for pen-tech maker N-Trig and $100 million for mobile calendar company Sunrise. Samsung bought a mobile payment company (competing with Apple pay), LoopPay. Also out buying was Twitter which picked up Niche, a network of social media creators. There were a number of interesting deals in Asia, including Sapdeal buying luxury fashion estore Exclusively; Foodpanda made six acquisitions of online meal delivery services to establish itself as a powerhouse in that space. Showing some forethought Australian job board OneShift has bought Adage, which is a job board serving people over 45.

The US economy continues its recovery with almost every indicator being extremely positive. Confidence indicators, GDP, unemployment figures… all show an economy that is growing. So much so that the number one concern of businesses is now the talent shortage! Canada on the other hand is not so buoyant and continues to "go sideways", which is clearly not helped by the price of a barrel of oil these days, and Obama playing politics by vetoing the Keystone Project.

In other news, supporters of net neutrality had a victory this month when the US Federal Communications Commission voted in their favor. Another Bitcoin exchange went bust, this time amidst rumors of some less than ethical practices. Gartner tells us that worldwide IT spending will increase, CareerBuilder tell us more people want to (need to?) work after retirement and the growth of smartphone sales keeps on rolling.

Read more Industry News…

The next Quarterly Job Market Update is scheduled for the April 2015 newsletter. Check out the January 2015 newsletter for the most recent update.

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