There was plenty of merger and acquisition activity this week, with equity firms and IT companies prepared to pay substantially over the odds to gain expertise in e-commerce, imaging and SOA (service-oriented architecture), moves that were largely applauded by the investment community.

Straight out of the gate on Monday, electronic commerce and payments technology provider First Data Corp. announced it had agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) for a cool US$29 billion.

First Data's shares leaped 20.6 percent on the proposed deal, which valued the company at $34 per share, a 26.4 percent premium on its Friday closing stock price of $26.90. The company provides a wide variety of payment products and services to help merchants and financial institutions validate and process payments. First Data has been undergoing a major restructuring initiative since late 2005 to cut costs and improve its competitiveness and eventually intends to offload its check and money order operations.

Although the terms of the deal allow First Data to actively solicit other bids within a 50-day period, analysts believe the company is unlikely to attract another suitor prepared to make a higher offer than the one already laid out by KKR.

On the same day, Xerox Corp. announced its plans to buy Global Imaging Systems Inc. for $1.5 billion. With the U.S. office imaging equipment reseller and services provider under its belt, Xerox hopes to appeal more to small to midsize businesses. Xerox's offer represented a 49 percent premium on Global Imaging's Friday closing price of $19.50 per share. Shares of Global Imaging closed Monday up 46.9 percent or $9.14 at $28.64, while Xerox's shares ended the day $0.19 higher, up 1.1 percent to close at $17.08.

On Thursday, shares of WebMethods Inc. rose 26 percent on news that German middleware vendor Software AG plans to acquire the U.S. SOA company for $546 million. The all-cash transaction of $9.15 per share represents a premium of 25.7 percent on webMethods' Wednesday closing share price of $7.28. WebMethods President and CEO David Mitchell hinted that other unidentified companies might have been bidding for his firm, but concluded that Software AG's offer was the "most compelling."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.