Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Venture Backed Exits Drop

Dow Jones VentureSource is reporting this morning that liquidity generated by mergers and acquisition and initial public offerings of venture-backed companies in the U.S. has fallen to its lowest quarterly total, since the fourth quarter of 2005. According to Dow Jones, there was only $8.2B in exits for the first quarter of 2008. Dow Jones, which released its quarterly U.S. Liquidity Report today, said there were 80 M&A transactions worth $7.8B in liquidity, and only six IPOs in the quarter, which raised only $392M. The amount was a drop from Q2 of 2007, when there was $10.2B in mergers and acquisitions and $1.2B in 13 IPOs. "We're certainly seeing the turbulence and economic uncertainty constrain exit opportunities for private companies right now," said Jessica Canning, Global Research Director for Dow Jones VentureSource, in a statement.