When Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) announced the $2.7 billion purchase of 3Com Corp., it let the world know that H-P intends to compete fully with Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) in the corporate data center.

With its strength in Ethernet, 3Com (COMS) gives HP a major piece of the pie, but it still needs a few more slices if it wants to be a one-stop-shop for data centers. One such slice it might go after next is application acceleration, said Catharine Trebnick, a senior research analyst with Avian Securities.

Application acceleration appliances speed up the delivery of programs from a data center to the people using it, using methods such as balancing the workload across machines.

Prior to HP’s announcement yesterday, many analysts speculated publicly traded F5 Networks Inc. (FFIV), a leader in this space, was a likely acquisition target, but most now have soured on that idea.

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It’s been just over a month since news broke that Intuit (INTU), makers of Quicken budgeting software and Turbo Tax, would buy Mint.com for $170 million.

Some of Mint’s 1.5 million customers took to blogs and Twitter to complain about the deal and threaten to close their accounts.

About 1,500 to 2,000 customers did jump ship, said Aaron Patzer, Mint’s CEO, most within two days of the acquisition announcement. The site also, however, added 45,000 members the same week, for a total of 1.7 million users today. (The site typically adds some 30,000 users a week.) The relaunched Mint iPhone application has been downloaded 350,000 times in the last month.

“In general, there’s been more positive than negative,” he said.

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Corporate investors and acquirers are showing more interest in potential deals after a difficult economic downturn, but start-ups can improve their chances of a favorable exit by taking some steps of their own.

A group of top executives from technology companies speaking at the Dow Jones VentureWire Technology Showcase on Wednesday gave their suggestions on do’s and don’ts when seeking an investment or acquisition from these companies.

When building a start-up with an eye toward a future acquisition, it’s important for start-ups to know the companies they are targeting, panelists said.

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Most angel investors dream of home-run exits, funneling seed capital into young start-ups with hopes they’ll turn into Google (GOOG), YouTube or even Mint.com. But the Band of Angels, an angel group flush with its third fund, believes there’s mighty value in later-stage companies and smaller acquisition prices.

“Sure, everyone is talking about the sale of Mint.com,” said Ian Sobieski, a founder and managing director of Band of Angels, referring to Mint Software Inc.’s recent $170 million sale to Intuit Inc. (INTU) “But if my buddy can sell his company for $12 million, $15 million without too much dilution, that’s pretty good.”

The Band of Angels, founded in 1994, has traditionally invested in start-up seed and Series A rounds through a $50 million vintage 1999 fund and a roughly $6 million fund raised in 2004.

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Xerox’s new CEO bets big on services. Can she convince investors she made the right move?

Ursula Burns calls less than 30 minutes after the markets close on the most tumultuous trading day in Xerox (XRX) history, and she sounds, well, energized. Not quite 100 days into the CEO job, on Monday she launched the biggest acquisition bid in the company’s history and survived a 15% drop in its stock price on record volume. And she’s still standing.

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Chinese Web portal and mobile phone content provider Sina’s (SINA) deal to acquire the billboard operations in China of Focus Media Holding (FMCN) has collapsed today, almost ten months after it was first announced. The deal had been a thorn in Sina’s side since it was announced on December 22 last year, and has been the subject of intense scrutiny among sell-side analysts in the past week. Focus Media shares rose 20 percent from Monday to Friday last week on expectations that terms would be restructured to allow the sale to go ahead.

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Xerox (XRX) shares are coming under heavy pressure this morning after the company announced it would acquire computer services firm Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) for $63.11 per share in a combination of cash and stock. Xerox said in a press release the deal will make the combined company a $22 billion “global enterprise for document technology” and will advance Xerox in the “$150 billion market for business process outsourcing,” often known as “BPO.”

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In the latest, weirdest twist to the crazy trading in Vonage (VG), there apparently are rumors that the company could be acquired by AT&T (T). That just might be the dumbest rumor I’ve ever heard.

For starters, AT&T a few years ago started its own voice over IP service called CallVantage–but quietly shut down the service earlier this year. True, AT&T and other telcos have been seeing a rapid fall in their residential land lines. But that has more to do with people substituting wireless phones for landlines than it does with the invasion of voice over IP services.

Auriga USA analyst Chandan Sarkar this morning took a look at the theoretical combination, and finds the concept lacking.

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Will Comcast (CMSCA) use its rising cash pile to make a large acquisition in the content business?

Reuters raised that question in a lengthy news analysis yesterday which wondered if the company is plotting a giant deal along the lines of its failed $54 billion bid for Disney (DIS) in 2004. The story says speculation on the Street has the company potentially targeting Viacom (VIA), or even Time Warner (TWX). (A combination with Time Warner–which would give the company control of key cable properties like HBO and CNN – would be truly weird, given that Time Warner only months ago spun off Time Warner Cable as an independent company.)

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Google Inc.’s (GOOG) acquisition of video compression software maker On2 Technologies Inc. has been challenged in court by On2 shareholders who claim the deal’s $106.5 million price tag is “unfair.”

The complaint, filed in Delaware Court of Chancery on Monday, seeks class action status and a permanent injunction blocking the deal. The plaintiffs also demand that the defendants, which include On2’s board as well as Google, account for all damages caused.

Google declined to comment on the complaint. On2, which produces software that makes high-definition video playback possible on mobile devices, wasn’t available for comment.

Under the terms of the deal, each On2 share will be converted into 60 cents in Google stock–a 57 percent premium over the closing price for On2’s shares the day before the deal was announced.

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How much would you pay for a Facebook fan? That’s a question that many are determining as they look at potential Facebook fan page acquisition opportunities.

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As investors and analysts digest this morning’s Oracle-Sun news, some are wondering what will happen to Sun (JAVA)-owned MySQL, and whether combining the Oracle (ORCL) and MySQL database businesses would represent an antitrust concern.

While MySQL would be a small part of Oracle’s overall business, it’s a popular open-source database that competes with other Oracle offerings. The deal, writes Seeking Alpha’s Mike Butcher, “has massive implications for the future openness of Java and MySQL.”

“MySQL is clearly a big prize for Oracle,” writes Om Malik on GigaOm, who says that the acquisition takes out Oracle’s No. 1 threat.

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In a stunning turn of events, Oracle (ORCL) this morning announced perhaps its most aggressive acquisition yet, agreeing to acquire Sun Microsystems (JAVA) for $9.50 a share in cash, or $7.4 billion. Net of balance sheet cash and debt, the deal is worth $5.6 billion. The news follows the reported recent collapse of talks between IBM (IBM) and Sun.

Oracle said it expects the deal to be at least 15 cents accretive to earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing, contributing over $1.5 billion to non-GAAP profit in the first year, and over $2 billion in the second year.

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Yesterday’s rumors about a potential acquisition by Oracle (ORCL) of Red Hat (RHT) have apparently faded, but Larry Ellison’s appetite for doing deals is never sated. Whether or not Oracle decides to take a run at Red Hat, it is not going out on a limb to suggest that at some point Ellison is going to get the itch and make more acquisitions.

Research firm Wedge Partners today took a look at the potential targets and came up with plenty of candidates. They think the company is going to enter a more active acquisition period, with most of the focus on smaller venture-backed companies, but adds that they could do “a handful of acquisitions” in the $100 million to $500 million range. And maybe a bigger deal or two. In particular, they see Oracle targeting deals in Software as a Service, virtualization and health-care technology.

Here’s Wedge’s list of potential targets in each of the three sectors:
Software as a Service:

Salesforce.com (CRM): Wedge notes that Ellison was an early investor and still holds his position; CEO Marc Benioff is a former Oracle exec. Wedge contends that “despite the bluster from both companies,” they rarely compete. They assert that Oracle’s SaaS offering is “greatly inferior” to CRM’s.

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The first high-profile tech acquisition in months took place Thursday, but don’t take that as a harbinger of more deals.

Autonomy, a U.K. company that makes software that businesses use to track corporate information, acquired Interwoven (IWOV), a San Jose, Calif., document-management company, for $775 million in cash. Autonomy will sell some stock and tap a new line of credit in order to finance the deal.

The tech M&A world has been quiet for the last few months as companies adjust to the down economy. Many publicly traded tech companies have seen their market capitalizations cut in half over the last few months. Companies aren’t yet prepared to sell at such a discount, the conventional wisdom goes.

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