The Microsoft purchase for Skype stood as the top deal last quarter, helping contribute to a doubling in merger and acquisition activity with the most activity seen since the dot-com era. The deals showed the global power of the latest technology innovation wave with purchases focusing on cloud computing, smart mobility, internet video, the smart grid and solar energy.

According to Ernst and Young’s Global Technology M&A update, the aggregate value of M&A activities reached $52.1 billion in the second quarter of 2011 which is 92% higher than the previous quarter ($27.1 billion) and 69% higher than the same quarter of last year. The average value for deals with disclosed-values reached to $194 million, which is the highest quarterly value since the first quarter of 2000 during the dot-com era.

Most tech companies are now venturing in cross-border deals. The result for the second quarter M&A reveals that cross-border deal volume was 16% higher sequentially, compared with an 11% decline in in-border deals.

The top 5 deals within the quarter include:

1. Microsoft acquisition of Skype – $8.55 billion
2. Texas Instruments acquisition of National Semiconductor – $6.1 billion
3. Applied Materials acquisition of Varian Semiconductor – $4.75 billion
4. Toshiba acquisition of Landis – $2.29 billion
5. CenturyLink acquisition of SAVVIS – $2.28 billion

Other notable acquisitions include EA’s $1.3 billion acquisition of PopCap games, Providence Equity’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Blackboard, Epicor and Activant’s nearly $2 billion deal and Level3’s $3billion acquisition of Global Crossing.

Services Angle

With the booming demand for cloud-based services and mobile technology, tech companies have been focusing their resources in these lines. These technologies are so important that it actually influence the entire global economy. Trends suggest that M&A activities will still to continue grow in the next half of the year, according to Ernst and Young.

“After the first quarter M&A results, we saw the potential for a big year for technology M&A in 2011, but we were concerned over increasing divergence between buyers and sellers over valuation, geopolitical unrest, the continuing US debt ceiling and government spending debate, global debt issues and other unforeseeable possibilities,” say Joe Steger Global Technology Transaction Advisory Services Leader at Ernst & Young, in a statement. “Yet all these hurdles were overcome to produce a very robust second quarter. The big question is whether deal-making will continue to overcome these macro obstacles or take a pause in the second half.”