Upcoming deals to test appetite for tech companies

By Phil Wahba

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After months of shunning the initial public offerings of tech companies, investors have begun warming to them again, yet another sign the IPO market might be recovering.

So far in 2009, three of the four U.S. IPOs have had a tech flavor and another, by satellite image provider DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI.N: Quote, Profile, Research), is set to price next week.

Two more tech companies, network software provider SolarWinds Inc (SWI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and online restaurant reservation service Open Table Inc, recently filed terms for their IPOs, suggesting they may soon get into the open-market ring, too.

Bankers and analysts say the reemergence of tech deals typically comes early in the IPO recovery cycle because they have sought-after qualities: growth, low debt load and profits.

"Technology stocks are seen as being the leaders of the equity markets in coming out of a downturn -- there is generally a belief that technology stocks are among the first out of the box to outperform," said Alex Lehmann, a managing director for equity capital markets with Jefferies & Co.

The 2009 surge in IPO interest stands in sharp contrast with 2008, when tech IPO activity fell 89 percent from 2007 on a dollar basis, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The tech IPOs so far this year -- Chinese video game maker Changyou.com Ltd (CYOU.O: Quote, Profile, Research), online college operator Bridgepoint Education Inc (BPI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and language software maker Rosetta Stone Inc (RST.N: Quote, Profile, Research) -- are generally profitable, low debt outfits.

Before this flurry, there had not been a tech IPO since Rackspace Hosting Inc (RAX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) last August, with DigitalGlobe set to be the first venture-backed tech IPO since then.