All signs point to more activity:

The recent spat of enormous acquisitions (Mandiant @ 1B, AirWatch @ 1.45B, Nest @ 3.2B, WhatsApp @ 19B, Oculus) in the first three months of 2014 had me question whether this is M&A market is materially different than previous years with the likes of Tumblr @ 1B, Instagram @ 1B, Ariba @ 4.5B, SuccessFactors @ 3.5B and more. How far outside of normal are we?

As written about by Redpoint partner Tom Tunguz in this great post about tech consolidation, the large tech companies have huge reserves of cash. With Microsoft with 106B in current assets and a new CEO, Apple with 80B, Google with 72B, Facebook with 13B and Yahoo at 5B and a valuable stake in Alibaba (as of last reporting). That is a lot of dry powder seeking revenue growth generation. All signs point to increased M&A activity.