High-tech firms in high demand in Bay State

Silicon Valley giants have been shopping for acquisitions in Massachusetts, buying and partnering with key companies from this state’s much-vaunted technology industry. As businesses long known for their local roots join with or are absorbed by ventures from California, the question becomes: What signature companies are left, and are they targets for takeovers?

In October, the world’s top networking firm, Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif., agreed to pay $2.9 billion to buy Starent Networks Corp. of Tewksbury, a maker of data equipment for cellphone systems. Earlier this month, Cisco announced a joint venture with Hopkinton’s EMC Corp., the top maker of high-end data storage gear. And this week, the huge computer company Hewlett-Packard Co. said it would buy Cisco competitor 3Com Corp. of Marlborough for $2.7 billion.

A common thread runs through all three deals: Giant companies looking for new avenues of business are finding it easier to buy companies than to build their own. So are there other Massachusetts tech companies that could be prime acquisition targets?

They all are, according to Richard deNey, head of mergers and acquisitions at Needham & Co. in New York. “Technology, as a sector in the economy, is consolidating,’’ deNey said. “There’s really not a tech company up there [in Boston] that couldn’t benefit from consolidation.’’

Steve O’Leary, chairman of the industry group Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, agrees that the state remains a target-rich environment. “I think all of them are companies people might want to buy,’’ O’Leary said. “The harder question is to determine who’s next.’’

Possible acquisitions range from venture-backed startups to industry giants. Takeover rumors about EMC, for instance, have been wafting around for years. That’s possible, O’Leary said, but unlikely given EMC’s market capitalization of more than $34 billion.

“The number of companies that would be able to acquire EMC would be in the single digits,’’ he said. Besides, O’Leary doubts that anyone at EMC is interested. “EMC is a company that has a very strong go-it-alone culture.’’ A buyer would have to offer a large premium over EMC’s stock price to persuade the board to give up its independence, he added. An EMC spokesman said the company does not comment on rumor or speculation.

O’Leary said iRobot Corp., the Bedford maker of military and consumer robots, is another desirable-but-unlikely acquisition target. “It’s a wonderful company,’’ said O’Leary, but the best acquistions are “pure play’’ companies that focus on serving a single, clearly defined market.

A company such as Sony Corp. might value iRobot’s Roomba home vacuum cleaner business, while a defense contractor such as Northrup Grumman Corp. could fancy iRobot’s PackBot military surveillance machines. But O’Leary said that no potential acquirer would want both. IRobot said it could not make an executive available to comment.

Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc. in Wayland, thinks Internet technology company Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge is a good candidate for a buyout.

“It seems obviously that it might be a fit for Microsoft, or possibly a Microsoft competitor such as Google,’’ Kay said.

Indeed, Akamai stock rose last month on speculation that Google would pursue a takeover bid. But yesterday, during a visit to India, Akamai’s chief scientist Tom Leighton threw cold water on the reports.

“There have been rumours since the very first time we went public that somebody’s trying to buy Akamai,’’ Leighton said, “but we are very happy and very successful as an independent company.’’

A much more plausible target is Boston’s Carbonite Inc., a venture-financed company that has become a leading provider of online data backup for home computers. “Carbonite’s got terrific growth and seems to be doing very well,’’ O’Leary said.

He said it might make a good pickup for network security companies that target consumers, such as Symantec Corp. or McAfee Inc. O’Leary also cited Hewlett-Packard, which could preinstall Carbonite on its line of home computers.

But Carbonite cofounder David Friend says he’s not interested.

“We’ve been approached a number of times,’’ he said, “but I really would like to take this company public.’’

Friend predicted that as many as 100 million people worldwide will start backing up their computers online in the next few years. If Carbonite can get just 10 percent of that business, that would mean annual revenue of over $500 million. Friend said a company that size could rake in up to $4 billion in a public stock offering, far more than Carbonite would attract in an acquisition, and that’s the more attractive strategy.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.