Corporate Raiders Target Tech Giants

Ramblings

from the CEOs,-brush-up-your-resumes dept

In the tech world, much of the talk has to do with venture capital, who’s getting funded, and which ones manage to pull off an IPO. But that’s only half of the story when it comes to tech finance. Several pundits have been anticipating a wave of leveraged buy outs in the tech industry, as many aging companies sit on huge cash piles, but face mediocre growth prospects. That view is being furthered amid rumors that Freescale Semiconductor, formerly a unit of Motorola, is on the verge of being bought out by a private equity firm. If it does happen, the $16 billion price tag would be the largest ever in the industry. Many of the rumored bidders were among those that bought a stake in Philips’ semiconductor unit last month. With many of the older names in tech struggling or spending copious amounts of money to stay competitive, it seems likely that more of these deals will go through.