522 exits of VC-backed companies in 2011, total: $53.2bn

Forget the exits. The bigger problem is that the VCs were not earning their keep: (2010) <a href="http://hbr.org/2010/07/the-vc-shakeout/ar/1" rel="nofollow">http://hbr.org/2010/07/the-vc-shakeout/ar/1</a><p>10-year IRRs are negative during the period that Google went public! The customers of the VCs (primarily pensions and endowments) are beginning to look with jaundiced eyes...

This significantly understates the numbers because it doesn't include secondary transactions, which are increasingly common for founders and early investors.<p>This was most interesting: the median acquisition price is now $71M (up 77%) with 5.3 years to liquidity. Takes lots of time but potentially incredibly lucrative<p>The original release has better data: <a href="http://www.dowjones.com/pressroom/releases/2011/01032012-VCExits-0172.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.dowjones.com/pressroom/releases/2011/01032012-VCE...</a>

It's interesting to see a decline in the total value of deals in Q4, despite the fact that both Groupon and Zynga had their IPOs in that quarter. I wonder whether there's any seasonality that typically affects these transactions or whether there was a bit of a slowdown from the previous few quarters.<p>It's also interesting that only $5.4 billion, or roughly 10% of the total value of deals, came from IPOs during the year. For all the attention IPOs get, most of the money is coming from somewhere else.