Merger Monday's back: TWC, Nest, Suntory bids

• Merger Monday heats up again
• Suntory%2C Google%2C Charter bid for Jim Beam%2C Nest and Time Warner Cable
• Rich stock prices%2C need for growth fuel dealmaking

Armed with richly valued stock, companies are looking to buy their way into growth and sparking the best start to the year for dealmaking since the boom year of 2000.

Merger Monday returned with gusto today as Charter made a $61.3 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, Japan's Suntory bought Beam for $16 billion and Google bought digital thermostat company, Nest, for $3.2 billion.

The deals are part of what's been a steady rise of interest in mergers and acquisitions since the bear market ended. Companies are not only armed with rich stock to use as currency to buy other companies with, but have more faith in making deals to drive growth. Not only are deals off to the strongest start since 2000, but Charter's bid is the third-largest ever in the media industry, says S&P Capital IQ's Richard Peterson.

The pickup in dealmaking has been breathtaking. So far this year, 328 U.S. companies have been bought in deals worth $56.3 billion, not yet including

the Charter deal, says Dealogic. That comes off a powerful 2013 when 10,072 companies were bought for $1.2 trillion, up from the $979.4 billion spent in 2012.

Media companies have been a big part of the merger boom. Last year, 531 U.S. media companies were bought for $48.4 billion, up from $35.1 billion spent in 2012. And technology, too, has played a role. This year, 118 global tech companies have been bought for $8.2 billion. Last year, 5,824 global technology firms were bought for $217.2 billion, Dealogic says.