• by Wayne Friedman , January 7, 2015

LAS VEGAS — The number of media-marketing-technology deals remained much the same in 2014 versus the year before — but total deal volume nearly doubled due to major transactions.

The Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc. (JEGI) says there were 1,481 deals totaling $128.3 billion in 2014 — up from 1,393 deals and $66.7 billion. It was the largest dollar volume since 2007, when 872 deals were made totaling $104.4 billion.

The average size deal was $86.7 million, up from $47.9 million in 2013. There were 18 deals that went over the $1 billion mark — including eight in the marketing services and technology category.

The biggest was Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp for $19.7 billion. The next-largest was in the healthcare information/technology sector: CareFusion was bought by Becton, Dickinson and Co. for $12.1 billion.

Also among the top five purchases was the Publicis Groupe's acquisition of digital agency Sapient for $3.4 billion.

The most active category was marketing services/technology — with 602 deals at $39.7 billion — representing a 41% share of total deal volume and 31% share of dollar volume. Following that was healthcare information/technology at 234 transactions and $27.9 billion in value.

JEGI expects continued high M&A activity to continue in 2015, primarily due to the steady improvement in the U.S. economy and with unemployment at its lowest level since mid-2008.