Reuters, citing a study from Webmergers.com, reported that the number of Internet company failures slowed down to 41 in March from 53 in both January and February.
Based on the Webmergers.com research, February was the slowest month for dot-com shutdowns since October, when 35 firms went under.
Still, the Internet sector has a long road back to recover. At least 369 Internet companies have closed since January 2000, and for the entire first quarter of 2001 at least 147 Web companies closed, compared with only five closures in the first quarter of 2000, according to the San Francisco company.
On the other hand, the value of Internet mergers is also off sharply.
Reuters reported that in the first quarter, 184 Web destinations, companies doing business exclusively through Web sites, were sold for $2.2 billion. In the first quarter of 2000, 231 sold for $52 billion.
A total of 380 Internet companies were bought for $13 billion in the first quarter as consolidation accelerated for infrastructure companies, according to Reuters. Of that sum, $9 billion was spent to acquire 132 companies providing Web-enabling infrastructure.
For all 2000, buyers spent more than $87 billion on 910 acquisitions involving Internet destinations, representing nearly five times the number of deals and an 85 percent jump in spending over 1999, Reuters said.