Hit #43

Nortel is buying PEC Solutions (PECS) in a cash deal, valuing PEC shares at $15.5/share. This is a 35% premium over the most recent closing price, but just a 4% premium over my cost of $14.9/share.

The stock had moved down considerably after my purchase and I did not bother to average down - a mistake!

PEC is a federal IT contractor and as such was a target for the likes of Computer sciences, EDS etc. Nortel's entry into this field is a bit surprising. This is 3rd in a series of confounding tech deals (Symantec/Veritas and Adobe/Macromedia were the earlier ones).

Other federal/state IT solutions providers of interest include Tier Technologies (TIER), Tyler Technologies (TYL), Manatron (MANA), Mantech (MANT) and SI International (SINT). I own a few shares of Tier and Mantech.

Michael Dell owns a big part of Tyler.