Going-private: A Popular Trend?

From theStreet.com:

3Com shares surged 14% Thursday on rumors that investors may offer to take the company private.

Shares in the Marlborough, Mass., computer networking shop rose 64 cents to $5.09 as speculation spread through Wall Street that the company may be the target of a private investment takeover. Both Bloomberg and Briefing.com reported that there were unsubstantiated rumors about a deal.

The popular going-private trend has helped feed discussion about possible buyout candidates. Some observers say the guessing game may explain the stock run up in outfits like UTStarcom among others.

I am not sure about "the popular trend", but I happen to own both companies that were mentioned in the article: COMS and UTSI. Especially for UTSI, the idea of being acquired by either private investors (including the management of the company) or a public company has actually occurred to me many times given its ridiculous low valuation and the management's frustration with the wall street. I would think UTSI is be good fit for ZTE and COMS for Huawei. The consolidation would eliminate competition while expanding the acquirer's markets worldwide.

If taking companies private is indeed a trend as the article mentioned, I would add Omnivision Technologies, Shanda Interactive, and possibly Sohu into the list of potential buy-out candidates. Shanda's CEO Chen has publicly stated that he regretted having taken his company public when he did not need the money and that he has been pissed off by the Street's short-sightedness.

Even if the rumors turn out to be just rumors, I am happy for todays market and am very bullish on the market for the near future. Many of the stocks I own are showing the text-book up-trend. It's still early, but maybe the October I was so nevous about won't occur this year?