• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 19, 2013

Google is considering alliances with private-equity firms to help structure acquisition deals, but the tech company isn't alone, according to reports. Google's investment arm, Google Ventures, focuses on getting start-ups running.

Bloomberg, which initially detailed Google's move, estimates the average size of the 11,000 merger and transactions announced year to date at $168 million with a total value of $1.04 trillion. The average size of a technology deal was $93.4 million, and private-equity firms were the top acquirers, according to the data.

Companies continue to move to buy up talent and technology. Google has acquired nine companies so far this year, followed by Yahoo with more than eight, and Microsoft at four. The latest for Microsoft, the InRelease Business Unit from InCycle software, occurred this month.

During the second half of 2013, executives expect mergers and acquisitions to increase by 40.2%, and cash deployments to accelerate by 21.8% or hold steady at 30.7%, according to a Deloitte Financial Advisory Services director.

At Publicis Groupe, CEO Maurice Levy said earlier this year that the French advertising group would spend approximately $4 billion in acquisitions through 2018, according to reports.

It's not an unusual move to forge an investment partnership. In most cases, clients benefit. Consider the alliance between Publicis Groupe and Orange Telecom to create Iris Capital. In Google's case, the company wants to boost sales through acquisitions, using an approach it calls "toothbrush test," which assesses the frequency of a potential acquisition target, according to the news agency.