Venture-backed IPOs saw their strongest quarter since 2000 with offerings valued at $5.5 billion coming to the market in the second quarter of 2011, according to an exit poll by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

The number of M&As also returned to 2009 levels, with the second quarter seeing 79 venture-backed M&As, 36 of which had an aggregate deal value of $5.4 billion.

It's been a field day for the information technology sector, with 14 of the 21 IPO exits coming from this space. Even in the world of M&A, the sector ruled the roost with 56 deals and a total dollar value of $2.7 billion.

We are not experiencing an IPO bubble and these numbers certainly do not suggest that one is forming, Mark Heesen, president of NVCA, said.

In the largest IPO of the quarter -- Russian internet company Yandex raised $1.3 billion on May 24 -- the second-largest offering by an internet company after Google's $1.7 billion IPO in 2004. (Reporting by Rachel Chitra in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)