In case you missed it over the weekend, some new VC report came out that got the media in a frenzy, although what it actually revealed was completely different depending on what websites/blogs/newspapers you read: "Venture Funding Holds Steady", says MarketWatch, and "Venture Investments Are Up, But Not For Start-ups," notes Information Week. Some sources were even reporting that VC investments are down.

So which is it?

We like VentureBeat's take. While the actual dollar amount that VCs are investing in businesses hasn't changed substantially, it appears that securing such investment may be a little trickier for start-ups, according to the MoneyTree report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. That's because VC firms are increasingly having to throw more money at late-stage start-ups as a result of the recent dearth of IPOs. As evidence of that fact, the report noted that later-stage funding rose 15%. While funding for first-time investments did drop, don't despair quite yet. There's still plenty of cash out there. Investors turned over $1.6 billion in funding to start-ups in the last quarter alone.