Last year marked the start of what looks to be a strong recovery for U.S. M&A. Thanks to a sustained pickup in the last six months of 2010, when the wheels of corporate America really started to turn, the aggregate value of American M&A deals hit $722.9 billion–a 4 percent increase from 2009.

Overall deal volume was also up, jumping almost 30 percent, to 3,496 transactions, according to new Corporate Scorecard data provider mergermarket. (Last year we published data from Thomson Reuters.)