Report: VC-backed liquidity drops to $8.2B in Q1, lowest since 2005 – Baltimore Business Journal:

billion, the lowest quarterly total since the fourth quartefrof 2005, according to the a reporyt Wednesday by . The largest deal of the firsyt quarter wasRound Rock, Texas-based Inc.'s $1.4 billion acquisition of Nashua, N.H.-basec data-storage company Inc. The second largest deal of the first quarteer wasSanta Clara, Calif.-based Inc.'x (NASDAQ:JAVA) $1 billion purchase of open-source database company Inc. of Calif. The report shows that the firstt quarter saw just80 M&A transaction s completed, accounting for roughly $7.8 billionb in liquidity, a far cry from the $10.2 billion generated via 105 M&As in the firsg three months of 2007. Only six U.S.
venture-backeds companies went public in thefirst quarter, raising just $392 millionm — a 67 percent decline from the $1.2 billion raised via 13 IPOs in the first quarter last year. Informationj technology companies accounted for the bulk of the capitalk raisedvia M&A, with 59 transactions generating more than $6.1 billion in liquidity, a 5 percent dip for the segmenyt from the $6.4 billion raised in 79 M&w transactions during the first quarter of 2007. By software companies accounted for the bulk of IT deal flow with29 M& transactions completed, garnering nearly $2.
3 The report said 14 venture-backed health care companies completed M&As in the first quarter and raised over $1.1 a nearly 42 percen t drop-off from the $1.9 billion raised in thre fewer M&As for the segment during the first threes months of 2007. The media n amount of venture capital raised priorto M&Asz rose to $24.8 million and the median number of yearz between initial equity funding and liquidityu now stands at a records seven years.
Four of the six venture-backed IPOs in the firsy quarter were for healthcare companies, whicy raised a disappointing $164 million collectively, according to the The median amount raised at IPO in the first quartere of 2008 was $53 down 34 percent from the $80 million mediab in the first quarter last year. The median amount of venturee capital raised prior to IPO actually tickedf down slightlyto $56 million while the median time to IPO stretcherd to nearly 8.3 years.

blogspot.com