Online & Wireless Industry M&A activity exhibited mixed trends in 2009 with a volumetric decline but a rise in aggregate value.

Volume declined by 12% from 720 deals in 2008 to 636 in 2009.

Aggregate value increased by 5% from $24.68 billion in 2008 to $25.83 billion in 2009.

This increase in value is due in large part to a significant increase in the aggregate value of deals done in the E-Marketing & Search segment. The aggregate value of deals done in this segment was $3.21 billion in 2008 and $5.98 billion in 2009, an increase of 86%. Several large deals in this segment contributed to the increase in aggregate value, including Adobe's acquisition of Omniture for $1.6 billion; Google's acquisition of Admob for $750 million; and VivaKi's acquisition of Razorfish for $530 million. All three of the aforementioned deals exceeded 2008's largest transaction in the E-marketing & Search segment, which was Microsoft's acquisition of Greenfield Online for $460 million.

Berkery Noyes utilizes the price paid as opposed to enterprise value in order to avoid an inflated transaction value for deals where less than 100% of a company is being acquired.

Volumetrically, while there was a decline in activity for the year, 2nd half 2009 exhibited a 19% increase versus 1st half 2009, which was the first half-to-half increase in volume since activity peaked in 1st half 2007.

Berkery Noyes provides skilled transaction management to publicly traded and privately held businesses and private equity groups in both sell-side and buy-side mergers and acquisitions. We have managed transactions ranging from several million to more than four billion dollars in value, with an emphasis on mid market transactions of $10 million to $500 million in enterprise value.

Our clients include private companies seeking a buyer, most of the major international information companies, and private equity firms who use the firm's expertise in locating, analyzing and negotiating with acquisition candidates and in managing divestitures. The firm operates with a staff of forty professionals serving the information industry.