Berkery Noyes, the leading independent investment bank specializing in the information content and technology industries, today released its Half Year Mergers and Acquisitions Trends Report for the Media & Marketing Industry.

The report analyzes merger and acquisition activity in theMedia & Marketing Services Industryacross the first half of 2011 and compares it with activity for the four previous six-month periods from 2009-2010.

In an effort to provide a more accurate and complete survey of transactions, Berkery Noyes expanded its traditional Media Industry report to include marketing services transactions. The report was renamed to recognize the strong relationships between these increasingly dynamic and often interdependent industries.

Berkery Noyes data shows that total transaction volume this period increased 14 percent over the previous six months, from 563 transactions in the second-half of 2010 to 644 in the first half of 2011. Total transaction value was up 68 percent over the previous six months, jumping from$17.3 billion to $28.9 billion. This was due, in large part, by five transactions valued over a billion occurring in the first half 2011, while the full year 2010 saw onlyfour billion dollartransactions.

"By expanding the report to include marketing services, we're able to include coverage of a very exciting and active sector in the media sector," saidEvan Klein, managing director, Berkery Noyes. "With that enhanced insight, we're among the first to accurately and definitively report on the continued recovery of M&A activity in the media and marketing services space."

As a direct example of this expanded coverage, the transactions of Publicis, the world's third-largest communications company, are now covered in this report. Publicis ranked as the most active acquirer over the past two and a half year period with 27 transactions.

Internet Media, with a 38 percent increase in transactions in the first half of 2010 over the second half of 2010, from 182 to 249, remained the strongest segment within the industry.

Unique amonginvestment banking firms, Berkery Noyes combines independent strategic research and industry intelligence with senior sector specific banking expertise. Long having been an innovator in database and research technology in M&A, Berkery Noyes has committed itself to providing more expansive and more current information on the acquisition activity in its sectors.