The federal government needs cash, and we all know it has to come from somewhere. As no politician has ever been criticized (at least not broadly) for going after the folks with the deepest pockets, private equity industry needs to dig in for what could become a fierce battle over new taxes.

The issue isn't new. For a while now, the feds have been kicking around new taxes on private equity firms based on how profits are classified. Yet, this search for cash could have unintended consequences, as the definitions used could wind up taxing venture capital funds and small partnerships, which could be the keys to an economic recovery. Critics argue that the tax may not bring in as much money as the government hopes.

Software giant Oracle (ORCL) finally completed its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems on January 26, for $9.50 per share in cash and debt deal, setting up an opportunity for the company to dominate its competition in the database software and enterprise computing systems markets.

Sun has been delisted from the Nasdaq and all Sun stock holders were to have cash payouts mailed to them within a week.

When it comes to snowplows and salt spreaders for light trucks, Douglas Dynamics has top-notch brands in the industry. They include Western, Fisher and Blizzard.

Now, Douglas has filed to go public. The estimated size of the offering is about $150 million.

Venture capital funds aren't being terribly adventurous. In the U.S., they invested less capital in start-ups, a sign that uncertainty persists. Also, they're spreading the wealth: More companies are getting a taste, but in smaller doses. This tendency suggests that VC investors are diversifying as a way to test the waters for promising companies.

The situation is pretty straightforward: A difficult economy means that (a) start-ups will have trouble finding customers and (b) exit strategies for investors will be more difficult to attain and probably less lucrative. So, the risks of failure are higher, and the rewards are lower. As a result, VC investors need to be more cautious as they enter positions. Add to this the general financial market malaise we've experienced for the past year and a half -- longer if you trace the origins of the financial crisis to February 2007, with the agita at New Century Mortgage -- and now doesn't exactly seem like the time to place a handful of big, concentrated bets.

For a mega private equity firm like Blackstone (BX), there's a need to get liquidity on a mega scale. So this week, the firm prepared for one of its holdings, Travelport, to go public. The deal could be worth as much as $3 billion.

Blackstone will float the deal on the London Stock Exchange. There will also be the issuance of 7.2% of the stock to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (for about $225 million).

A new book, The Prince of Silicon Valley, chronicles the dealmaking of the IPO king of the 1990s: Frank Quattrone. He made a fortune as he helped more than 100 tech companies go public, which included marquee names like Cisco (CSCO), Netscape and Amazon.com (AMZN).

But those days seem quaint. In fact, the tech IPO market has been a backwater for the past decade, even though there have been some big deals -- like the offerings of Google (GOOG) and Salesforce.com (CRM).

The Twitter-verse continues to get interesting. I've always felt that the returns are to be found around Twitter rather than with Twitter itself, and the venture capital community seems to be acting from the same position. Twitter interaction platform HootSuite just announced a new round of venture capital funding, with $1.9 million in fresh money coming in the door to support its growth efforts.

HootSuite, which was started by Invoke Media in November 2008, has evolved into a brand monitoring, file-sharing and social media integration utility. Only a year later, it has attracted more than 300,000 users, from Time (TWX) to Martha Stewart to the White House to Aol (AOL).BloggingStocks is among the Aol blogs using HootSuite.

Mega-buyout funds are turning in their worst returns over one-, three- and five-year periods. Large buyout funds haven't performed well either, with small buyout funds faring best, according to alternative investment research firm Preqin. With enough time having passed from the financial market mayhem of the third quarter of 2008, it's now possible to gain some perspective and measure the results.

Mega-buyout funds' returns were negative over the past year, down 31.4%. Over the last three years, returns were still negative at 3.1%. But over the last five years, mega-buyout funds returns a solid 23.9%.

Over 10,000 leaders in technology, business, and finance recently gathered at Columbia University in Manhattan to analyze emerging trends at the second New York Entrepreneurs Week. The conference featured such companies as SecondMarket, FirstMark, Capital Behind the Burner, Behance, Nolcha, TheLadders.com, Bonobos, 1-800 Flowers, Meetup.com, Thrillist and NYC SBS.

The conference's founder is Gary Whitehill, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who strives to educate entrepreneurs worldwide. Whitehill graduated in June 2007 from Central Connecticut State University with a triple-degree in management, marketing and entrepreneurship. Having been to New York City just once in his life, he relocated to the Manhattan without knowing anybody. Whitehill said, "I knew for sure that one way or another, my decision to move to New York would be an adventure I would not regret," and it definitely paid off, not only for him, but also the thousands of people who attended New York Entrepreneur Week.

If your job last year was to raise private equity capital, you couldn't have been all that happy. Capital raising hit its lowest level since 2003, according to Dow Jones LP Source by way of VentureBeat, falling to $95.8 billion for 331 funds. In 2008, $300 billion had been raised across 508 funds, translating to a 68% year-over-year decline. Nobody was spared the struggle to raise funds, except secondary funds, which reported a 50% surge in fund raising.

The buyout fund, among the largest sectors in the private equity business, saw the capital raised fall 72.5%, from $195.5 billion in 2008 to a mere $53.7 billion in 2009. The largest buyout funds suffered most: only six funds with more than $6 billion under management raised an aggregate $14 billion. The year before, it took only 12 funds of this size to pull in a combined $75.2 billion in fresh capital.

The clean technology sector was a lone glimmer of hope for the venture capital business through the financial crisis and ensuing recession. Quarterly updates gave positive news despite the destruction of capital elsewhere in the global financial markets. Now that the results are in for 2009, however, the outcome isn't as positive as many expected.

According to data from market research firm Cleantech Group and accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, venture capital funding fell 33% last year, but still held up better than the market as a whole.

The Blackstone Group (BX) is one of the world's largest private equity real estate investors, with a global portfolio of $23.7 billion. The firm also has extensive hotel holdings. Some of the brands include Hilton, La Quinta, Waldorf-Astoria, Boca Raton Resort & Club and the Trianon Palace Versailles.

In fact, as financing warms up -- and valuations remain attractive -- Blackstone is starting the year by boosting its holdings. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the firm is angling to control Highland Hospitality. This was done by making a clever purchase of outstanding debt from Wachovia.

Look, 2009 was a "flush" year. Market rallies were constrained by the low baseline set at the end of 2008, unemployment was high and caution defined nearly every corporate decision. The travel market sucked. The art market sucked. The financial industry labored on with the support of taxpayer money while 140 banks were forced to call it quits. So, we turn to the new year, as yet undefined, for excitement of the type we want ... and it seems likely to deliver. As Nero played from the rooftops, the social media industry inched forward to the climax we hope to see this year -- the initial public offering.

The action hasn't really begun, and the signals emitted are open to various interpretations. Nonetheless, Facebook's new dual-class stock structure is hard to miss, as it would protect the influence of early entrants to the company -- either as investors or options-compensated employees in the event that the 350 million-strong social networking site brings ownership opportunities to the public.

In the buyout corner of the private equity business, "dry powder" continued to grow in 2009. Industry slang for capital available for investment, this measure points to how much activity private equity funds are capable of completing.

From December 2004 through December 2008, according to data from alternative investment research firm Preqin, the amount of funds on the sidelines surged from $178 billion to $501 billion for the buyout sector, nearly tripling. This year, buyout dry powder only increased by $3 billion, to $504.28 billion. While this may feel like little more than a rounding error, it suggests stability in the sector after what has been a trying climate for financial services business of all types.

A few years ago, SS&C Technologies had some bad timing. The company attempted to pull off an IPO. However, because of the global financial crisis, the offering had to be pulled.

Well, as the markets have since improved, SS&C Technologies is taking another try. This week, the company refiled for an IPO.