dr. smith,

I write more as an investment banker and a ex rater. I think the existing oil over pricing too is having a global asset binge and over pricing of assets. we in india just cannot buy oil at over 100 dollars and depend on capital flows and exports to cover up. It in fact has financially undermined our oil companies. we have still a large number of people in the middle income group that will affected due to the inflation caused partly by oil and rest by this over pricing of products. that way competition has not helped and i think oligopoly exists.mark up has been higher on products recent years in India and it has in fact excluded a large population of our country get the benefit of economic reform.

regards and keep in touch

It would appear that way - more for the angel groups than the VCs. I believe capital is still being deployed, but the sources have raised the bar to mitigate their risk and have slowed the deployment to more-carefully review their options. The “hot” areas of investing have also changed. This makes it a lot harder for those deals that are in out-of-favor sectors. The links provided with this answer will give far more details (if you’re interested).
Links:

* http://www.nvca.org/pdf/08Q2_VCinvestMTReport.pdf
* http://wsbe.unh.edu/files/2007%20Analysis%20Report_0.pdf

Their is certainly a decline in the ‘bigger’ VC-markets and in de MBO-markets, where VC’s are also active in. Their, the credit-limitations by banks realy influence the number of deals in these markets, as well as in the M&A-market.

Greetings from Belgium,

Koen

Good day Dr.,

VLAB, SD Forum and/or Venture Alert are good mediums for tracking this information.

Regards,

John S. Rajeski

You might check NVCA and altassets.com as well.

Absolutely. Although substantially smaller deal size (these averaging $2MM) traditional SBA lenders have rolled up the welcome mat and locked the doors. Two transactions that would have been a ‘walk in the park’ a year ago have been scuttled in the past 30 days as a result of extremely tight lending requirements.

Essentially, the lenders torque the buyer and seller requirements until one or the other can’t accept the terms. Then they feel like they have done their part.

Looking at equity in the 35% range with seller financing on full standby for the length of the SBA backed note (ten years in one case).

At our firm we are having to reset expectations on our clients part and discuss with buyer prospects that they will need to be better prepared financially to qualify.
Links:

* http://www.enlign.com

is this because there is an asset abuse in the system and relentless asset building without proper analytical support - asset value erosion and the subsequent caution. too much of money in the system and caution to the wind. i think productive and cautious asset picking is always a better option for the entire world.