What Were The Top News Stories Of 2016?

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(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com Dec. 22.)

Acquisitions, IoT, Security Breaches And Exploding Phones

It has been an eventful year in the IT industry and the channel – but what year isn't? While there were obvious blockbusters, it's sometimes difficult to separate the REALLY BIG stories from those that were merely "big."

There were, as always, big acquisitions, from Dell completing its $65 billion buyout of EMC, to Oracle's $9.3 purchase of NetSuite. Some, such as CSC's merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise's enterprise service business, won't be done deals until 2017. And some, like Verizon's $4.83 billion bid to buy Yahoo, may never materialize.

There were disasters such as Samsung's debacle with exploding Galaxy Note7 smartphones and Yahoo's disclosures of two huge security breaches. There were controversies like Microsoft's Windows 10 "nagware." And while the 2016 election consumed much of the country, IT became part of the narrative with stories about Hillary Clinton's email server and reports of Russian hacking.

Here, starting with No. 16 and working down to No. 1, are what we saw as the biggest news stories of the year.