At least 210 internet companies worldwide went out of business last year, according to a survey by webmergers.com.

The San Francisco company estimated that as many as 15,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the closures.

That does not include all dot.com layoffs, however, because many companies still in business have reduced staff.

The rate of companies failing accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2000 with 60%, of closures - 121 - happening towards the end of the year. The closure rate in the last three months of the year was more than one company a day.

"Shutdowns accelerated in the fourth quarter as dot.coms began to run out of funding that began drying up after the stock market shakeup that began in late March," the report says.

About $1.5bn of investment money and 40 companies were lost in December, compared with 46 closures in November.

The business-to-consumer sector was hardest hit, with 75% of failures being in that area, according to the study.

Hi-tech regional centres bore the brunt of the fall-out with just above 30% of closures taking place in California. New York and Massachusetts each accounted for nearly 10%, while western Europe lost 23 companies, 11% of the total.

Most of the companies that failed, 109 out of 210, were e-commerce businesses. Online content sites made up another 30 of the total, with infrastructure and other online service companies accounting for the rest of the failures.

Some firms shut in December even before they ran out of money. DeskTop.com and BizBuyer.com, both closed before their funding ran out.

The study concluded that: "At least a quarter of December's shutdowns are seeking to sell their assets or to reorganise through bankruptcy filings or some other means."

The report was based on data from more than 50 news sources and concentrated on large companies.