| According to a recent survey published by Webmergers.com, at least 210 internet companies went out of business in 2000. Of those, electronic commerce companies accounted for more than half of the shut-downs.
The study by the San Francisco-based company which tracks internet mergers, showed that rates of failure for dotcoms accelerated towards the end of the year, with 60 per cent of shutdowns occurring in the fourth quarter.
December alone saw 40 start-ups go out of business, costing their investors $1.5 billion.
Of the 210 failures during the year, e-commerce companies accounted for 109, while internet content sites added 60 failures to the total. Internet services and infrastructure companies accounted for the rest.
Webmergers estimated that the shutdowns resulted in the loss of 15,000 jobs. This figure does not include job losses at the many internet companies that are still in business, but which have drastically reduced their payrolls to cut costs.
According to the study, more than a third of the closures came in California. Europe, Massachusetts and New York each accounted for 10 per cent, and the Asia-Pacific region 3 per cent. | 
