U.S. venture investment in the third quarter totaled $3.9 billion in 464 rounds of financing, its lowest level in four years, according to a survey by Ernst & Young and VentureOne. In the same period last year, $7.2 billion was invested in 696 rounds. Just one company, HealtheTech, completed an IPO in the third quarter, according to the survey.
Software investment increased 28% over the third quarter last year, largely because of government and corporate spending on security, data center management and enterprise application integrations.