• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 5, 2009

Mergers and acquisitions activity in the media world tanked in 2008, thanks to the credit crunch--which stalled dozens of deals, according to DeSilva + Phillips, which released its latest M&A report last week. The investment bank says the number of deals decreased 20%, from 135 in 2007 to 108 in 2008.

However, the real news is the change in dollar volume, which plummeted 80%--from $9.6 billion in 2007 to just $2 billion in 2008.

A number of big deals got spiked in 2008, due to the reticence of bankers spooked by the financial meltdown. The largest was the planned $6.7 billion sale of Informa, a British trade publisher, to Providence Equity Partners Ltd., Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group LP, which failed in September.

More recently, Reed Elsevier took its print magazine business off the auction block in December. Reed first asked $2 billion, then lowered the price tag to $1 billion, but potential buyers still could not arrange financing.

More modest deals had a higher success rate, including small purchases by Hearst, Meredith and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which bought Emeril Lagasse's fledgling media empire for $50 million.

Business-to-business media dominated the transactions in terms of dollar volume, with two-thirds of the total value in B2B deals. Some of the bigger deals here included Investcorp's purchase of Randall Reilly for $180 million and Arlington Capital's purchase of Virgo Publishing for $101 million.

The planned $200 million sale of Cygnus Business Media was stalled by the credit crunch.