In just a couple of days a few startups just got acquires for sub-30/50 million dollars. Kindo by MyHeritage (congrats to Saul Klein investor in the buyer and seller), MadKast by ShareThis and IntenseDebate by Auttomatic (i am big fan of IntenseDebate installed on this blog).
There are still liquidity events taking place on the market in spite of the "crisis" and i believe the majority of liquidity events on the web will be of that nature in the short future. VCs traditionnally find it a bad news because it means opportunities are not big enough for them on the web, but i personnally this is great for the ecosystem and will drive more entrepreneurs to create great stuff. Along with those small exits, bigger but fewer macro acquisitions will be taking place.
I also believe that to get bigger more and more micro acquisitions will be necessary. There are tones of talents and great stuff out there that can be acquired for not so much. We can observe that the acquirers are themselves funded startups. The path to liquidity is not only owned by the Big Cos.
But the rule on the web in the next 24 months is going to be Micro Acquisition. This is just the evolution of things: the acquirium is getting bigger and the big fish eat the small ones (and sometimes the healthiest eat the sick ones)