Mobile Is A Bright Spot For M&A So Far This Year

M&A Activity Falls In First Half 09

While the larger M&A market has all but dried up in the first half of 2009, “companies that have something, anything, to do with mobile,” are the exception to the rule, reports AllThingsD, which quotes The Jordan, Edmiston Group. Release.

In the past six months, the number of overall transactions fell to 300 compared from 426 in the same period 2008. Even worse, the total value of those deals plummeted to $5.4 billion from $22.5 billion. But when it came to mobile, deals increased 46 percent and the value of those deals jumped by 38 percent. In total, there were 16 mobile deals in the first half compared to 11 a year ago.

According to mocoNews archives, some of those deals include: RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) buying Dash Navigation; Good buying Intercasting; Velti buying Ad Infuse; SmartReply buying mSnap; and LimeLife buying Tapatap. Those companies represent a wide range of categories from navigation to mobile advertising and social networking.

Going forward, the firm predicts that mobile advertising will grow 28 percent in 2010 and 30 percent in 2011. It also feels that the general environment for M&A has started to turn, and several noteworthy transactions will close in the second half of the year.

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