• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 30, 2011

Media M&A activity is gaining momentum again.

Last year marked a major comeback for media, information, marketing services and technology M&A activity. And while slightly less dramatic, related moves continued to gain speed during the first half of 2011, according to Jordan, Edmiston Group.

During the first half of the year, the value of announced transactions reached $23 billion -- a 15% increase over the first half of 2010 -- on a similar volume of M&A deals.

By contrast, the first half of 2010 saw a 61% surge in deal volume, and an increase nearly four times in transaction value over depressed 2009 crisis levels.

Continued growth in 2011 on top of the major rebound last year reflects a healthy continuing M&A environment, according to JEGI.

Interactive marketing services and technology markets continue to account for the majority of deal activity and value, with the B2B and B2C online media and technology, marketing and interactive services, and mobile media and technology sectors accounting for 71% of total deals and 63% of deal value in the first half of 2011.

Interactive companies are maturing while still growing rapidly, leading to rising deal sizes in these markets.

According to JEGI, there is a "secular evolution" at hand, and marketing dollars continue to rapidly follow consumers online. Media consumption is shifting to the Internet and away from traditional media, such as magazines and newspapers.

On average, consumers are spending 36% of their media time online, compared to 19% just five years ago, JEGI notes, citing data from Forrester Research. Digital advertising dollars have ample room for growth, as just 15% of domestic advertising spend is currently online.

By comparison, consumers spend 35% of their media time with television, and television accounts for 33% of advertising revenue.

The gap between time spent online and advertising dollars spent online equates to a $35 billion annual advertising opportunity. It points to a continuing movement of ad dollars to the Internet in the coming years, according to JEGI.

As a result, major media companies such as Hearst, Meredith and Gannett have been investing in marketing services to better assist their customers and capture more revenue. Plus, ad agencies and marketing services companies are retooling their business models via investment in integrated and interactive marketing solutions.

Large technology companies such as IBM, Cisco, Akamai and Adobe are aggressively entering the marketing services market and investing in analytics, optimization and digital advertising solutions for the enterprise.

These trends have made marketing and interactive services among the most active sectors for M&A, accounting for 27% of all transactions in the first half of 2011.

Marketing and interactive services M&A was particularly active among both digital and traditional ad agencies, as well as ad networks, data and analytics companies, and market research/consulting and marketing technology firms.

New areas of growth for marketing services have also seen more deals, such as social-media marketing, which accounted for 17 transactions and $250 million of value in the first half of 2011.