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"Publicly disclosed merger and acquisition activity for private tech companies reached $46.8 billion last year across 2,277 transactions, according to a new report from CB Insights.\r\n\r\nThe $46.8 billion figure comes from just 331 deals where the valuations were disclosed, as only 15% of transactions made the financial terms public.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nGoogle and Facebook were the most active acquirers with 12 private acquisitions each. Five of Facebook's deals were talent acquisitions, or &amp;quot;acqui-hires&amp;quot;.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nInterestingly, the bulk of acquired companies had not raised investment. 76% of private tech companies that were bought up last year had bootstrapped instead of turning to VCs.\r\n\r\nAs expected, California saw the most private tech M&amp;amp;amp;A deals last year, more than the next five states combined. North Dakota was the only US state that didn't host a private tech acquisition in 2012.\u00A0Internationally, the UK was the top acquirer, followed by Canada. India emerged as an up-and-comer at the third top international market.\r\n\r\nWeb and mobile commerce were the most popular types of companies to acquire, comprising 173 of overall deals.\r\n\r\nNotable acquistions in 2012 included: Facebook purchasing of Instagram, Microsoft snatching up Yammer,\u00A0and Twitter acquiring Posterous.\r\n\r\nAn earlier report on the venture capital market found that\u00A0$28.3 billion in investments\u00A0had been made last year, down from $30.6 billion in 2011.\r\n\r\nHeader image via Flickr / 401(K)2013\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/30/google-and-facebook-led-private-ma-activity-in-2012-as-companies-spent-46-8b-on-over-2200-deals/>