1998: the year of the mega-deal: deal values totaled about $1.2 trillion.(Dealmakers '99)(merger deals in Colorado)

The Titans merged, the corporate world shook and Colorado shook with it in 1998.

Dealmaking last year turned monstrously huge, crushing the record-breaking years before it. Nine out of the 10 largest deals in all of U.S. history were announced in 1998, including one in Colorado.

"This was clearly the year of the mega-merger," said Bill Clark, chief operating officer of Houlihan Lokey's Mergerstat. "Mega-mergers accounted for $919.2 billion and 77 percent of the total deal market."

Nationally, there were 7,700 transactions with announced deal values totaling approximately $1.2 trillion, according to Mergerstat. That was 84 percent more in dollar terms than the year before.

Of the 327 Colorado deals announced last year and captured in the Mergerstat database, 62 were above $10 million, 28 deals topped $100 million and four met the definition of a mega-merger - $1 billion or more.

The disclosed value of those Colorado deals topped $63 billion, more than triple the $17.65 billion worth of deals seen in 1997 and four times the $13.1 billion done in 1996.

A majority, $48 billion, was contained in the …