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Today Silver Lake has announced the closing of the Silver Lake Sumeru fund for $1.1 billion in capital raised. Silver Lake is a leading private investor in technology and the fund represents its first middle-market investment fund. The fund will specifically focus on growth opportunities in sectors such as hardware, software, internet, and technology-oriented services that are in the midst of the transformation shift in performance or growth.

Silver Lake works with existing management to add value in investments and push growth opportunities. Here are some current deals it has been involved in:

In the end of 2007, Silver Lake Sumeru acquired a majority stake in Mobile Messenger and is providing capital and operating experience for mobile content management and distribution.

In April 2008, Silver Lake Sumeru financially supported the merger between AVI and SPL to create the world's largest video and audio conferencing provider.

Also open to divisional spin-offs, Silver Lake Sumeru recently signed a definitive agreement with ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) to acquire their i2 division which is ChoicePoint's investigative analysis and visualizations software division.

Last year, Silver Lake closed its Silver Lake Partners III, a fund that focused on large-scale investments in technology companies for a total of $9.3 billion in equity commitments. Combining this fund with Sumeru, Silver Lake has $10.4 billion directed toward technology investments. Silver Lake now manages a total of $16 billion in assets.

We recently noted the woes of private equity and capital intensive needs of many technology, particularly with Freescale. Some companies flat out just need to be public, but there are always opportunities around.