Looking back to 2014 and ahead to 2015

On Tuesday 12^th January 2015, ACG sponsor KPMG kicked off the first of ACG Holland's lunch meetings for 2015. Seventy members and guests listened to Onno Sloterdijk, Partner KPMG Corporate Finance looks back on the M&A activity of 2014, while looking ahead, Eric Derksen of IBM Team Watson provided an insight into how cognitive computing is changing how we gather information and make decisions.

On 2014 trends in Europe, the statistics showed most deals were driven by strategic takeovers in a sellers market characterised by uncertainty - roughly 40% of announced transactions did not go ahead. Looking ahead predictions are that strategic opportunities will continue to motivate buyers – most being opportunistic, offering prospects to expand geographic reach or customer base. The sectors expected to be most active are healthcare, technology, media and telecom.

Cognitive computing was a completely different topic for the audience and in a lively presentation, Eric Derksen explained how computers are now able to observe and interpret the billions of pages of data that are connected in the world and intelligently learn from their mistakes. A short film showing Computer Watson hold its own against two human super brains in a general knowledge quiz was impressive.

Applications using Watson are now being sold for commercial purposes. For example Watson read the whole oncology curriculum in 3.5 weeks, as well as more cancer documentation than a person could ever read, and is now helping oncologists to determine the right therapy / medicine for cancer cases.

The possible applications of Watson are endless and with 2000 people employed to work on this in IBM’s New York office, the future does not seem so sci-fi after all.

The presentation of the research is available for you to download below.