• by Wayne Friedman , December 31, 2012

Media mergers and acquisitions continued to climb in value and total dollar volume -- with smaller deals dominating the 2012 landscape.

Just over 1,350 media transactions occurred in 2012 -- 50% more than 2011, with total volume at $75 billion, says The Jordan, Edmiston Group (JEGI). The year before registered 902 deals for a total of $52.2 billion.

Smaller media transactions made headlines for the media category in 2012.

Of the 1,351 deals, 90% were less than $50 million in value. JEGI says only 14 deals topped $1 billion in value; six of those occurred late in the year, in the fourth quarter. The report says over 400 deals also took place in the fourth quarter, all to anticipated 2013 tax changes.

New interactive and digital market deals drove most of the activity, accounting for 70% of all transactions and 62% of value. Major acqusitions occurred in this category by companies such as Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce and ExactTarget.

Over the last eight years, the low point for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) media deals occurred in 2009 -- at the nadir of the recession -- pulling in $31.2 billion from 606 deals.

The marketplace's zenith was in 2007 where a total value of $104.4 billion was achieved from 872 deals.