[Posted on August 22, 2006 - 2:19 PM]
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DiggOnly six Web 2.0 startups have been acquired in the first seven months of 2006, according to my interpretation of Citigroup research report released yesterday. The lucky sellers were Measuremap, Sketchup, Writely, Orion, Meedio and Lightningcast. The chart is not comprehensive since it omits a few News Corp. deals (kSolo, Newroo) but it does provide a good overview of Internet and media M&A activity.
The point is this: There hasn't been even one medium-sized Web 2.0 exit all year. All of the deals that have been announced have not had a value attached to them, meaning they were probably sold for far less than $25 million.
To give you an idea of how low these M&A statistics for Web 2.0 companies are; boring old online flower retailers (Provide Commerce, Interflora) have been the targets of two acquisitions this year worth a total of $598 million. So, for all the money being invested by venture capitalists, there has been little to show for it to date. This is destined to change in the final five months of the year.
Tags: internet, web2.0, vc, venture+capital.
