Global merger and acquisition activity amongst technology companies was worth $92bn (£47bn) in the first quarter of 2008, down from $100m in the first quarter of 2007, according to a report from analyst firm The 451 Group.

Once Microsoft’s $44bn (£22.3bn) bid for Yahoo is removed from the equation, the figure falls to less than $50bn (£25.4bn), with private equity investment proving increasingly hard to find.

The number of deals completed worth $1bn (£508m) or more fell to 11 transactions compared to 20 a year earlier. The total number of deals announced dropped 25 per cent to 778 transactions.