The mergers-and-acquisitions market for New Jersey-based companies came back to earth in 2012. The top 30 transactions posted $50.8 billion, down nearly 42 percent from $87.3 billion in 2011, according to the Law Journal‘s annual survey.

Last year, on a national scale, “had some ups and downs” but was “relatively flat” and saw deals “that were not bet-the-company kinds of transactions,” says Stephen Arcano, who heads the New York mergers and acquisitions group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. “You don’t really have the megadeals in 2012 that you had in 2011.”