Cambridge Associates reports that limited partners received $93.6 billion from U.S. buyout funds in 2011, the largest annual amount it has recorded since it began tracking the data in 1986. Will the record distributions continue this year?

Finally, the day has come. Facebook begins life as a public company this morning. By any standard, and however the stock performs in its opening minutes, or days, or weeks, this company and the team behind it have accomplished something truly awe-inspiring.

As Facebook marches toward its IPO, VCJ took a look at recent U.S.-based, VC-based public offerings.

Forget Facebook. The fate of the IPO market this week could depend on the public offerings of three lower profile enterprise companies backed by venture firms: Splunk, Infoblox and Proofpoint.

The bill is still expected to advance on Wednesday, Senate Democratic aides told Reuters. Some said they expect it will pass the 60-vote threshold needed to pave the way for final passage, although one aide predicted the vote could be close.

Here are the 10 posts that garnered the most unique pageviews from peHUB’s regular readers from Jan. 9 to 13. Coming in at No. 1 was David Toll’s top 10 funds of funds list.
1. Returns Scorecard: 10 Top Funds of Funds – by  David Toll
2. Venture-Backed IPO, M&A Markets Might Be Best Thought of as Above Average in 2011: Slideshow – by Mark Boslet
3. New York City Pensions Commit $880 Million to Four Funds – by Gregory Roth
4. Slideshow: Euro Venture Fundraising Takes a Tumble – by Angela Sormani
5. An MBA on Becoming Relevant to an Industry “That’s Doing Fine Without You” – by Connie Loizos
6. Slideshow: The Private Equity Exodus (subscribers only) – by Angela Sormani
7. New Buyout Shop In Philly? – by Bernard Vaughan
8. Carlyle Founders See Big Payday in 2011 – by Greg Roumeliotis, Reuters
9. Sixpoint’s Zoller Fundraising Tips for GPs: Talk to Your LPs and Have a Plan Before You Market – by Luisa Beltran
10. Under Romney, Bain Generated Major Gains and Some Busts, WSJ Says; Plus “When Mitt Romney Came to Town” Video – by Luisa Beltran

The year just passed was not a standout one for venture-backed IPOs. It could have been worse, though. Fifty-two venture-funded companies made the plunge to public from private. This was down from 75 in 2010. But the dollar value of the offerings rose to $9.88 billion, up 41%, according to data from the National Venture [...]

Global cleantech venture investing fell during the fourth quarter, but ended the year 13% higher than 2010. The final three months of the year saw $2.06 billion go into 150 deals, down 6.2% in dollars from the third quarter and 27% in transactions, according to the Cleantech Group. Mergers and acquisition activity was weak, with [...]

Here is confirmation of what most of you in the venture world already know. The market for venture-backed IPOs rebounded in the fourth quarter, but not enough to match the vigorous final three months of 2010. That helped lead all of 2011 down 31% in volume and 41% in dollar value from a year ago, [...]

I’m ready to declare 2011 as the year of the pivot. I haven’t kept any stats on it, but the term “pivot” came up at least once a week. Or so it seemed. Sometimes, it was in the negative context of, say, a Color Labs and what that company was going to do now with [...]