The financial meltdown of 2008 all but shut down venture-backed exits, as we all know. The National Venture Capital Association declared a crisis back in the second quarter, which got worse in the third quarter. This week, the NCVA released its numbers for the fourth quarter and, as expected, they are pretty grim. There were zero venture backed IPOs in the quarter, and only 37 M&A deals (down from 78 in the third quarter). Of the 37 M&A deals tracked by the NCVA, 30 were in IT.