Led by the online media and marketing services sectors, M&A for the media and information industries reached record highs in 2007: 838 transactions and nearly $110 billion in value for the year, up 32 percent and 79 percent respectively over 2006 levels, according to the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), writes MarketingCharts.

According to JEGI:

• The approximately $50 billion dollar growth in deal value between 2006 and 2007 nearly matched total M&A transaction value for all of 2005.
• Some $75 billion of the approximately $110 billion total was reported in the first half of 2007, as M&A slowed in the last six months of the year, with the disruption in the credit markets.
• Nonetheless, while a few larger, high-leverage deals stalled, middle-market transactions continued at a brisk pace for both strategic and private equity buyers.

Continued Strength in Online Media & Marketing Services M&A

The online media and marketing services sectors led the charge with, together, 555 transactions valued at $43 billion for the year.

The continued growth of online media has made ad networks particularly attractive. Each of the "Big Four" online media companies - AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - acquired at least one ad network or ad delivery company in 2007, led by Microsoft's $5.7 billion acquisition of aQuantive and Google's $3.1 billion announced acquisition of DoubleClick.

Yahoo and AOL each acquired several ad networks in 2007, including Blue Lithium for $300 million and Tacoda for $275 million, respectively.

M&A Highlights

Marketing & Interactive Services

The marketing and interactive services sector continued to outpace the overall media M&A market, with number of deals and value increasing 77 percent and 81 percent, respectively, in 2007.

Fourth-quarter deal activity was led by AOL's $340 million purchase of Quigo Technologies, Omniture's $394 million purchase of Visual Sciences, and the sale of Circles to Sodexho and Seevast's Moniker to Oversee.net.

Online Media

Leading all sectors with 306 transactions in 2007, online media deals increased 69 percent and deal value increased 33 percent over 2006 levels. M&A in the online media sector was driven by both B2B and consumer media transactions.

For B2B in the fourth quarter, KnowledgeStorm was sold to TechTarget for $58 million, while on the consumer side iParenting was sold to The Walt Disney Company, Spectrum Equity Investors acquired The Generations Network for $300 million, and HowStuffWorks was acquired by Discovery Communications for $250 million.

MarketingCharts offers more M&A highlights of other sectors.

About JEGI: Based in New York, NY JEGI is a provider of independent investment banking services for the media and information industries. In 2007, JEGI represented Gorilla Nation Media, the largest online ad sales representation firm, in a major financing. In B2B, JEGI represented Reed Business in its acquisition of BuyerZone, Cymfony in its sale to Taylor Nelson Sofres, VentureDirect in its sale to PlattForm (Arlington Capital Partners), Circles in its sale to Sodexho, KnowledgeStorm in its sale to TechTarget, and online ad network Seevast in the sale of Moniker to Oversee.net. For B2C, in addition to Gorilla Nation Media, JEGI sold iParenting to The Walt Disney Company, Healia to Meredith, and TechGuide.com to TechTarget.