With 637 transactions totaling more than $95 billion in value, New York-based JEGI said the first three quarters of 2007 already have matched all of 2006 in terms of the number of deals, and the deal value has far surpassed full-year 2006's total of $60.6 billion by 64%.
The marketing services and online media sectors - including deals like Microsoft's $5.7 billion acquisition of aQuantive - dominated the action, representing a combined 414 transactions valued at $36 billion, or 65% of all media and information deals and 38% of total deal value.
"The robust growth in Internet advertising spend has made online ad networks and technology providers attractive growth acquisitions, and a number of them changed hands in 2007," the report stated.
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