Last month's acquisition of Wayport Inc. by AT&T Inc. was one of the largest venture-backed deals in the nation during the fourth quarter, according to a report released today.

The $275 million purchase of Wayport, a Wi-Fi services that was founded in Austin in 1996, was the third largest VC-backed merger and acquisition of the quarter, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

In 2007, Wayport moved its corporate headquarters from Austin to Dallas, relocating 45 employees, including CEO Dave Vucina. However, its engineering and operations, which includes about 250 workers, remain in Austin.

The $945 million acquisition of Maryland-based Bill Me Later Inc. by eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) was the largest VC-backed M&A deal of the quarter. The largest M&A deal of 2008 was Dell Inc.'s (Nasdaq: DELL) $1.4 billion acquisition of New Hampshire-based data storage company EqualLogic Inc., a deal that was announced in the fourth quarter of 2007, but closed in January 2008, Dow Jones reported.

Nationally, M&A deals generated just $3.9 billion during the quarter, capping the worst year, based on liquidity events, since 2003. U.S. venture-backed companies generated $24.1 billion in liquidity from initial public offerings and M&As during 2008, down 58 percent from $57.6 billion in 2007, according to Dow Jones.

Only 325 VC-backed companies merged or were acquired during 2008, the lowest number of such deals since 1999, and down 29 percent from the 457 companies sold in 2007.