Private equity shifts gears to technology

Posted Jun 5th 2007 10:30AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Ciena Corp (CIEN), Sun Microsystems (JAVA), Palm Inc (PALM), Bargain Stocks

Private equity and investors in general are beginning to open up their pocketbooks for technology. Palm Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) announced a deal with Elevation Partners which agreed to invest $325 million for a 25 percent stake in Palm.

Also, Avaya Inc (NYSE: AV) is being picked up for a nice premium, $17.50 per share or $8.2 billion by Silver Lake Partners and TPG Capital.

Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) went to market and issued $450 million in convertible debt. And earlier this year, Sun Microsystems Inc (NASDAQ: SUNW) picked up cash from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in the form of a convertible stock.

Slowly but surely, private equity and investor interest in technology is picking up. This could be the very early stages of a big bull market run for tech stocks.

Tags: AV, Avaya, bull market, BullMarket, CIEN, Ciena, Ciena Corp, CienaCorp, Elevation Partners, ElevationPartners, KKR, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, KohlbergKravisRoberts, Palm, Palm Inc, PalmInc, private equity, PrivateEquity, Silver Lake Partners, SilverLakePartners, Sun Microsystems, SunMicrosystems, SUNW, technology, TPG Capital, TpgCapital