Nevada wasn’t the only state with big buyouts in 2005. The Los Angeles Times reports that business sales surged in California last year, “mirroring a national trend, as public companies scrambled to grow and buyout firms put piles of money to work.”

Deals involving California-based companies, as either buyer or seller, rose 9 percent to 2,246, according to data from FactSet Mergerstat, the paper reports. The dollar volume zoomed 86 percent, to $186.3 billion. The last time the numbers were bigger was back in the the dot.com boom.

Major deals included Chevron’s $17.7-billion purchase ofUnocal,
UnitedHealth Group’s $8-billion buyout of PacifiCare Health, and Cisco Systems’ $6.6-billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta, according to FactSet Mergerstat.

Two things are driving the numbers. Companies are looking for “strategic acquisitions” to drive growth in a “solid but unspectacular” economy and investment banks and private equity firms have lots of cash to fund those deals.

“It’s a seller’s paradise,” Lloyd Greif, head of L.A. investment banking firm Greif & Co. tells the paper. “When you have these rootin’-tootin’ gunfights, the target companies benefit.”