• by adam.m , Michael Deibert , July 1, 2005

Led by deals such as Yellow Pages Group's $2.07 billion purchase of Advertising Directory Solutions and IAC/InterActive's $1.85 billion takeover of Ask Jeeves, 266 media and information mergers and acquisitions were completed in the first six months of the year-- compared to 231 in the first six months of last year, according to a report released Thursday by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.

The total value of these transactions totaled nearly $27 billion, a more than 180 percent increase over the value of deals completed in the first half of last year.

Breaking the figures down further, the largest gainers in the mergers and acquisitions book were consumer magazines (deals valued at 1,400 percent more in the first half of this year than 2004), directory and reference publishing (up more than 2,300 percent) and educational and professional publishing (up 194 percent). The value of exhibitions and conferences mergers rose 257 percent, followed by marketing and interactive services (up 150 percent), newspaper publishing (up 247 percent) and online media (up 181.3 percent).

Among the largest online deals of the second quarter were eBay's purchase of Shopping.com for $620 million and Hellman & Friedman's $670 million buyout of DoubleClick.

Adam Gross, vice president of marketing and communications with Jordan, Edmiston said the company expected growth to continue throughout the rest of the year. "We certainly foresee a strong market heading out to the rest of the year and even in 2006, mainly because we don't see any significant increase right now in interest rates," said Gross. "You're now looking at growth across the market place after several years of cost cutting."

On Thursday, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank raised interest rates, but only by a modest amount. The Fed increased the headline interest rate 25 basis points to 3.25 percent, and also hiked the discount rate on overnight loans to bank to 4.25 percent.