NEW YORK -- Venture capitalists are seeing better investment returns than last year, the New York-based National Venture Capital Association said Monday. The NVCA, along with Arlington, Va.-based Thompson Venture Capital, said to date in 2004, venture capital transaction value has gone up 59.7 percent in total value and 12.7 percent in deal volume compared to the first three quarters of 2003.
In 2004, 31.1 percent of deals where the deal value is disclosed reported transaction values at least four times greater than the amount invested, compared to 20.2 percent of such deals during same-period 2002.
Deals that returned values more than 10 times the amount invested made up 13.4 percent of disclosed-value deals, compared to 4.5 percent in the same period of 2003.
Venture-backed merger and acquisition activity remained stable in third-quarter 2004 with 83 companies acquired. While the average deal was valued at about $3.92 billion, 3 percent lower than second-quarter 2004, it was 44 percent higher than third-quarter 2003.
"We are seeing a healthier 2004 than 2003 both in the number and valuation of these companies," said Mark Heesen, NVCA president.
