• by Wayne Friedman , June 30, 2010

Deals for media business rocketed up over 50% in the first half of 2010 -- the highest level in at least six years. But the value of those deals is still well below record levels.

Media investment banking company Jordan, Edmiston Group says there were 445 deals in the first six months of 2010 -- well over the 292 for the first half of 2009. The value of those deals improved nearly 300%, to $20.8 billion from $5.3 billion in 2009. JEGI says these deals include all media, information, marketing services, education and related technologies.

The biggest areas were business-to-business; deals focusing on the Internet/online gained the most traction.

Internet acquisitions in this area climbed nearly 400% ($363 million); with business-to-consumer mergers/acquisitions climbing 64% ($2.98 billion). Business-to-business media improved 400% ($87 million), with database and information services up 90% ($9.3 billion).

Marketing and interactive services gained 96% ($3.1 billion), while the mobile media and technology category improved 188% ($1.0 billion).

Big interactive, marketing services and technology companies making acquisitions included Acxiom, Akamai, Alliance Data Systems, Apple, Facebook, Google, GSI Commerce, IAC, IBM, InfoSpace, Interpublic, Juniper Networks, Oracle, Publicis Groupe, Salesforce.com, Twitter, WPP, Yahoo and Zynga.

Jordan, Edmiston says one of the largest deals came from IBM's acquisition of Coremetrics, the Web analytics and digital marketing optimization company, for an estimated $150 million.

While the value of deals made in 2010 for the first six months was much higher than 2009 ($20.8 billion versus $5.3 billion), these levels are still below that of 2005 ($27.5 billion), 2006 ($42.7 billion), 2007 ($65.8 billion), and 2008 ($22.5 billion).