“The speculation in private high-tech companies (the most valuable of which are known as 'unicorns') has also ended with a thud,” he said in the letter issued Friday. "A friend of mine said the new name for these companies is 'unicorpse' as many of them cannot fund their losses internally for more than a few months and now have almost no access to external funding."

"The number of 'unicorpses' will soon begin to catch up with the number of unicorns," said Gary Rieschel, Shanghai-based founder and managing director of Qiming Venture Partners.

By late 2011 LivingSocial had raised more than $800 million and reached a valuation of $4.5 billion…Today, LivingSocial is more unicorpse than unicorn.

Some will demonstrate strategically justifiable metrics and have fantastic 'up round' exits; others may see liquidation preferences kick in which will negatively impact founders and employees; others may fulfill the adage "IPO is the new down round", which has been the case for more than half of the public companies on our list. Or worse, some may become "Unicorpses" :)).