• by Wayne Friedman , July 11, 2013

Media and marketing acquisition deals -- and their relative pricing -- remained the same for the first six months of 2013 versus the second half of 2012. But the total dollar volume declined significantly.

Investment banking advisory firm Berkery Noyes said there were 794 deals in the first six months of 2013 versus 800 in the previous period, the second half of 2012, with total volume declining 37% to $29.4 billion. In the first half of 2012, there were 853 deals with a value of 28.8 million.

The average price of those deals -- in terms of cash flow multiples -- stayed about the same versus the second half of the year, at 8.3 times the sales price. (It was at 8.0 for the first six months of 2012.) In terms of revenue multiple for those deals, the first half of 2013 rose to 2.1 times the sale price from 1.6 times in the second half of 2012.

The biggest increase in the number of deals came from the consumer publishing category -- up 21% from the second half of 2012. The entertainment segment climbed 11%; with business-to-business deals up 5%.

The top 10 largest acquisitions accounted for 57% of the industry’s value year-to-date. The biggest deal was BC Partners’ buy of Springer Science & Business Media for $4.42 billion. In the broadcasting category, the highest-priced transaction was Bell Media’s purchase of Astral Media for $3.20 billion.

The number of Internet company deals fell 7%, versus the second half of 2012. The biggest deal was Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr for $1.10 billion.

The marketing segment remains the largest group for acquisitions, slightly up versus the second half of 2012, to 252 deals. Internet is the next largest -- tallying just under 200 deals for the first half of 2013, down from around 205 in the previous six-month period.