The year we consolidated

Turn back your recently finished calendar page by page, and you'll see the usual mix of birthdays, holidays and appointments made and missed, but it also was a calendar full of telecom consolidation. If you didn't notice just how many and how frequently companies did the M&A dance in 2006, don't worry, we've listed them (most of them, at least) below. Who was busiest? Motorola made at least 12 acquisitions, with its Tut Systems deal coming just before year's end. VeriSign had five in the first few months. NeoMedia had the most impressive short stint of acquisitive energy, doing five deals in one month — and even more impressive — in the shortest month on the calendar (though by December, it sold one of those firms, and its CEO resigned amid restructuring). It's debatable whether there really were more acquisitions in 2006 than in any other year, but if you feel like there were more, you're not alone. “2006 just felt more robust than 2005, and this will probably continue into 2007,” said Brad Busse, president and chief operating officer of M&A adviser RBC Daniels, which itself is the result of the recent RBC Capital/Daniels & Associates merger. (See, everyone's doing it!)

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