Merger Values Up in 2005 Investment banking firm Petsky Prunier reports that the first nine months of 2005 saw a 66% increase in the value of merger and acquisition activity in the direct marketing sector, compared to M&A deals during the same period of 2004. The 351 transactions between January and September 2005 accounted for $38.5 billion. The largest deals so far have been the purchase of search engine Ask Jeeves by IAC/InterActive Corp. for $1.85 billion, and the sale of DoubleClick to Hellman & Friedman for $1.12 billion.
Online Shopping Rises 23%: Report ComScore Networks reported Sunday that non-travel online spending during the first 39 days of the 2005 holiday season hit $12.75 billion, representing a 23% jump over the $10.4 billion posted during the same period in 2004. The company forecasts that increase will hold through the holiday season and that U.S. Internet spending will hit $19 billion for November/ December 2005. ComScore noted that users conducted 6.6 iPod-related searches in November, along with 5 million on the term
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