Two hundred ninety initial public offerings valued at $59.5 billion were withdrawn worldwide in 2008, a new report says.

The number of withdrawn or postponed deals compares to 160 IPOs in 2007, according to consulting firm Dealogic. The 2007 deals had been expected to raise $51.4 billion.

The IPO market provides a key avenue for venture capitalists seeking to monetize the investments of their limited partners. The possibility of an IPO also tends to increase the prices paid by corporate acquirers.

In a separate report, the Financial Times reported that the New York Stock Exchange toppled Chinese stock exchanges as the top IPO venue in 2008. The FT, citing Dealogic research, reported that IPOs of Chinese companies raised $14.6 billion in mainland bourses and $7.4 billion in Hong Kong, plus $1 billion in foreign exchanges.

That compares to $25.4 billion raised on the New York Stock Exchange, primarily on the strength of the $19.8 billion IPO of credit card issuer Visa.

The largest global IPO withdrawn in 2008 was a planned $3.1 billion deal by Denmark’s Dong Energy, according to Dealogic.

In a year-end report, business consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that the frozen IPO market and constricted venture capital funding will force niche companies to seek “partnerships, alliances and all out acquisitions for exit.”

PWC sees consolidation by semiconductor companies in the second half of 2009 as mergers and acquisitions in clean technology that “will either continue to simmer or come to a full boil” depending on actions by the incoming Obama administration.