Once upon a time, back in the days of yore, when entrepreneurs went by names like “Jeff Bezos”, Internet retailers were the investment rage, and Harvard still printed a face book of its students on paper, there was a ritual that many venture capital backed participated in. It was called the “initial public offering.”

Now, many of you are young and can’t remember the 1990s, so let me tell you about this ritual. The founders of companies would sell shares of those businesses to the public and the businesses would be listed on the stock exchange.

This ritual, my children, is rarely used anymore. Like other ancient tools like the typewriter and the phonograph, the IPO-as-exit-vehicle has been replaced by a more modern tool: the acquisition.

recently released its counts of the number of venture capital-backed companies that exited in 2011, and the numbers tell the story of the lost IPO-as-exit-vehicle. The data

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08:59 PST LONDON, United Kingdom –

European markets responded calmly to Standard & Poor’s decision to cut the credit ratings of a number of euro countries as France managed to tap bond market investors Monday despite the loss of its cherished triple-A rating.

The downgrades, which were based on concerns over Europe’s ability to handle its two-year debt crisis and the lack of economic growth, had been anticipated for weeks so the market impact was muted, especially since the U.S. is on holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Europe is set to remain the focus of attention all week as a number of bond auctions are due and Greece tries to clinch a debt deal with its private creditors.

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According to a recent publication by a non-profit organization geared to expanding opportunities for women and business, 3.6% of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies are women, and 51% of the management-related professions are held by women. These statistics show how much women are starting to compete with men when it comes to starting, growing, and managing a business. In fact, in the United States of America, women make up 46.7% of the country’s working force in 2010.

Over the years, women have slowly evolved to become competitive, strong-willed and business-minded individuals. If you are a woman who wants to pursue her dreams of starting her own business but don’t have enough financing, there’s help for you out there.

There are small business loans for women who want to start, grow, and develop their own business. Small

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Photo Credits : Inha Leex Haley

It is a good idea to categorize your payments under different headings like daily living expenses, entertainment and vacation, health etc. This will give you a fair idea of how much you spend on different categories. It is easier to keep track and also control your expenses once you know how much portion of your earnings goes into each expense.

Getting married? Starting a job? Getting further education? Starting your own family? Have you planned for these important phases in your life? Good control over your personal finances will help you achieve the goals you have set for yourself and cope with changes in your life.

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The euro rose and European shares reversed earlier losses to gain for a third straight day on Tuesday, relieved by Italy’s success in selling 7.5 billion euros in bonds even if its cost of borrowing continues to soar.

Europe’s third-largest economy paid record yields of nearly 8 percent to sell three-year paper, a level that is likely to see its debt burden spiral out of control if sustained over time. It also sold a 10-year bond at a euro lifetime high of 7.56 percent, up from 6.06 percent at the end of October.

But the amount sold was close to the upper end of its target ahead of the sale, easing nerves among investors who had been worried by the prospect of limited demand or yields sharply higher than market levels.

“All in all … not bad at all,” said Marc Ostwald, strategist at Monument Securities. “They sold what they wanted to sell, and most importantly …

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Much has been happening in the world of Internet Marketing lately, so here is a brief synopsis of what’s new, and what it means for small businesses looking to market themselves on the web.

Growth of online advertising.  Internet advertising will be 2^nd only to TV advertising in revenues by 2014 and will surpass newspaper ad revenues by 2013.  While representing 14.4% of all advertising today, Internet advertising is projected to grow to 21% of all ad revenues by 2014, growing by roughly $10B a year for the next 3 years.  Read more.

Google puts online ads everywhere.    Online real estate is limited and growing more scarce.  So, Google is trying to squeeze ad real estate out of every corner they can.  Here are 6 new paid search products that Google has introduced to offer still more opportunities to advertise online.  Read more.

Google deals.    It appears that Google is planning to roll out a ‘check-in’ feature for its Google Place Pages so that companies can offer coupons & deals like they do with Groupon, Living Social and other deal competitors that are growing in popularity.  Can Google really compete in this space, even after earlier failed attempts?  Will sharing offers on Google+ make the difference for them?  Read more.

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