While still considerably down from its high several years go, the number of merger and acquisition transactions grew in 2003 and by all appearances is likely to continue to do so going forward. Between March 2002 and March 2003, M&A activity was near a nadir level with roughly 30 combinations. Between March 2003 and March 2004, closer to 40 transactions were announced. Unlike in the heady days of the dot-com bubble, almost all deals were relatively small. Only six exceeded $100 million, and only one—Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak’s acquisition of dental software vendor PracticeWorks—reached $500 million.
