However, Webmergers.com's figures also show that the shutdown rate is slowing dramatically. The fourth quarter of 2001 saw only 78 shutdowns compared to 135 in the same period last year. December's "death rate" was less than half of that in December of 2000 and is the lowest since August 2000. Shutdowns peaked between October 2000 and June 2001, an 11-month period that accounted for nearly 75% of all shutdowns in the past two years.
More than two thirds of all shutdowns in the past two years involved content or e-commerce properties, including entertainment sites, on-line news providers, e-tailers and B2B marketplaces.
M&A activity began to recover towards the end of 2001. In November, M&A activity was valued at $3.2 billion, up 60% from the year low in September. In that month, 79 Internet properties were acquired.
The firm considers that at most, ten percent of significant internet companies have shut down or declared bankruptcy.
The research looked at mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies and shutdowns of "substantial" internet companies around the world - defined as those that have received significant funding from venture capitalists, angel investors or other formal sources.