More tech deals predicted

NEW YORK — Research companies that fueled more than $100 billion in acquisitions last year are likely to spend more in 2011 in a race to harness surging demand for cloud computing and security services.

Buyers aim to capture the $3.4 trillion in information-research spending projected by researcher Gartner for 2011, a 3.5 percent increase from 2010. Cisco Systems and Oracle are among IT providers driving the convergence of services, software and hardware as they compete to become the most relevant to chief innovation officers. More companies are moving to cloud computing, allowing them to access information over the Internet from external data centers.

Dearth of initial public offerings while 2008

Venture capitalists are as well pushing for paydays afterwards a dearth of initial public offerings while 2008 and 2009. Worldwide, 94 research companies held IPOs in 2010, up from 54 in 2009, according to Bloomberg data.