SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

Choosy Investors: Venture capital investment in the United States has fallen from a peak of $5 billion in 1987 to about $1.2 billion in 1990, said Thomas E. Winter, who heads the Costa Mesa office of the venture capital firm Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co.

Given that shrinking pool, the industry is consolidating and venture capitalists are being more picky about what kind of firms they invest in, said Winter, whose firm specializes in investing in technology firms.

During the past several years, Winter said he has reviewed about 100 Orange County firms over several years and closely scrutinized about 25 of them. Of those, his firm decided to invest only in two small biotechnology firms. He said he looks for firms that concentrate on a specific market segment and are No. 1 or No. 2 in their market.

Winter said he isn’t looking for investments that would require more than $10 million in capital or companies that are hoping to attain only a small share of a market with “also-ran” products.