And now the left-behind technology companies are attracting the attention of buyout groups such as Francisco Partners, Silver Lake and Texas Pacific Group. The company is now about to go public again as OnSemiconductors. In addition to semiconductors, Coulter said the software industry, particularly companies that make enterprise resource planning software that allows a company manage and store financial, human resources and other internal operations, makes sense for buyouts. Going private has many advantages. Out of the public spotlight, a company can invest and experiment on longer-term projects without the pressure of meeting quarterly earnings expectations of investors and Wall Street.
Silver Lake is on the prowl for other buyout opportunities, as are a number of investment funds.
One possible candidate for a buyout, according to Francisco partner Dipanjan Deb and other observers, is networking equipment maker 3Com Corp., which is spinning off its Palm division and restructuring its operations. Investors currently place little value on the rest of Santa Clara-based 3Com, and once the spinoff of Palm is complete, it's unclear how its stock will trade. But some names frequently mentioned in buyout chatter include server maker Silicon Graphics Inc. and enterprise software firms PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards. And, of course, a low stock price. But not everyone is a fan of the practice of taking a company private.