The thrust of new acquisitions has been increasing interest in what many believe is a next wave of tech acquisitions - primarily around cloud computing and mobile, some might argue - yet as this trends, it promotes another wave of utility offerings.

With FourSquare walking away from Yahoo (or the converse), Zynga walking away from Facebook and other start-ups looking at sales instead of IPOs, it appears a good time to look at the big tech players and see where there is complementary utility or opportunity.

I.e., if Cisco can go after ad-based social networks (Eos) and flash video devices (Flip cams) and HP can go after mobile handsets (Palm), what does this portend for other big tech players looking to diversify their tech offerings?

Per GigaOm: Technology companies over the last few years cut costs to the point that they now have cash surpluses — which they haven’t been shy about spending to acquire venture-backed startups. The Wall Street Journal has picked up on this trend with a story this morning that cites data from Venture Source showing that 15 startups were acquired in the last week alone, and another 14 have gone public in the last year.

If the era of select IPOs - with musings on Facebook, Demand Media, Groupon or Zynga - creates volition for a round of quick M&A sales, all the better for the industry. As we’ll report, venture capitalists (like big tech co’s) are feeling the heat of not making investments in new companies over the past two years.

Now that LPs are putting pressure on VCs to show some ROI, it will be interesting to watch the force of M&A that feeds the “vicious capital” cycle.

Venture Capitalists and their LPs will push for a lot of M&A sales which will ultimately feed the bigger tech companies need for snap/strap-on investments and company growth. Consolidation, M&A and diversification will service all parties.  

In the spirit of covering topics that my readers are interested in, today’s blog topic comes from a good friend and former colleague of mine (Ed) who wrote to me recently asking if I could write a “how-to” article of sorts about how to navigate the angel investor waters. In these challenging economic times, coupled with the complex landscape found in the venture and private equity worlds, angel investors occupy a very worthwhile niche within the start-up ecosystem. They offer a combination of funding (at lower amounts) and hands-on assistance that the majority of bigger money shops can’t or don’t offer - although as we’ve read recently a handful of them are starting to set up “seed bet” funds.