12 top takeout targets in tech as Wedbush says M&A is 'set to accelerate'

[M&A - concept waiting for mergers and acquisitions.3D rendering on yellow background.]

* Merger activity is expected to pick up in the technology sector as the artificial intelligence spending boom continues to roll on, investment firm Wedbush Securities said. As such, the investment firm has identified 12 companies it believes could be acquisition targets for larger companies in the space.
* “The AI Revolution is hitting its next gear of growth as the all-out arms race happening across the tech ecosystem is driving significantly more enterprise spending across the board, with all industries looking to leverage AI across organizational workflows,” the firm wrote in a note to clients.
* It continued: “While the potential for AI accelerates every day with new LLM updates and features being announced, many small companies and AI startups may not have the capital necessary to pursue these expensive projects given the large costs tied to retaining top-class software engineers for AI projects and the elevated costs of compute with running AI projects.”
* Among the top M&A candidates in the tech space are Tenable (NASDAQ:TENB [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TENB]), Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/QLYS]), SentinelOne (NYSE:S [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/S]), Elastic (NYSE:ESTC [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ESTC]), Varonis (NASDAQ:VRNS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/VRNS]), C3.ai (NYSE:AI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/AI]), Innodata(NASDAQ:INOD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/INOD]), Telos (TLS [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TLS]), Serve Robotics (SERV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SERV]), SanDisk (SNDK [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SNDK]), Lyft (LYFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LYFT]), and TripAdvisor (TRIP [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TRIP]).

MORE ON WEDBUSH'S TAKEOVER TARGETS

* Tenable: Buy The Dip In A Cybersecurity Underdog? [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4827237-tenable-buy-the-dip-in-a-cybersecurity-underdog]
* C3.ai's New Chapter: Upgrading To Hold As Management Restructures [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4827217-c3ais-new-chapter-upgrading-to-hold-as-management-restructures]
* Tenable: Undervalued Cybersecurity [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4825119-tenable-stock-undervalued-cybersecurity]
* Wells Fargo initiates Elastic at Equal Weight as it waits for more AI monetization [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4500771-wells-fargo-initiates-elastic-at-equal-weight-as-it-waits-for-more-ai-monetization]
* Zscaler, Varonis, SailPoint among top cybersecurity stocks to own, JPMorgan says [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4498572-zscaler-varonis-sailpoint-among-top-cybersecurity-stocks-to-own-jpmorgan-says]