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One encouraging theme from the first annual UBS Global Technology Forum on Tuesday was that M&A in the high-tech industry is busier than in most other sectors, with midmarket activity holding stable and a handful of notable hostile transactions offering advisory opportunities. Otherwise, it's tough out there.

Bankers at the event, held near the heart of the U.S. tech scene in Palo Alto, Calif., said fees from technology deals will be down at least 25% on the year. If they're lucky. It would be worse if a resilient M&A market weren't helping to offset the dismal IPO and debt financing markets.

Brian Webber, global head of technology investment banking at UBS, said the global fee pool for all technology deals should total about $3 billion this year, a steep drop from the $6 billion in fees reaped in 2007 and an even sharper fall-off, not surprisingly, from the $12.1 billion collected in 2000 at the height of the Internet boom. The fees this year would put 2008 on par with levels in 2002 in the aftermath of the dot-com bust.

Continue reading at TechConfidential.com.

There have been rumors and press reports for a couple of weeks that the J.C. Flowers deal to buy student loan company SLM Corp. (NYSE: SLM), better known as Sallie Mae, might fall apart. Finding debt to close the purchase of the company was getting tough.

Yesterday, the rumors become news. Flowers backed out of its commitment. The Wall Street Journal writes that, "Mr. Flowers informed a group of UBS bankers that he wasn't prepared to pay the $60-a-share price he had agreed to in April." UBS is Sallie Mae's banker.

Flowers may simply be fishing for a price lower than his first offer. With its stock price at risk, the SLM board might be tempted to take a reduced price.

The buyout firm is arguing that legislation which could hurt the student loan market amounts to a "material adverse effect" to the deal, and that this gives Flowers the legal right to walk away.

The SLM board does not have any good choices. It could sue Flowers to complete the deal, and it probably should. But, as the legal fight drags on, shares in the student loan company are likely to fall. That leaves the board between Scylla and Charybdis.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

With the success of the Fortress Investment (NYSE: FIG) IPO in February, the asset management community is mulling the IPO option. It seems that investors have a big appetite for these types of offerings.

Well, this week, Pzena Investment Management filed to go public. Founded in 1995, the firm calls itself a "a premier value-oriented investment management firm with a record of investment excellence and exceptional client service."

Assets under management come to about $28.5 billion and the client base includes major institutions, high net worth individuals, and certain mutual funds.

From 2004 to 2006, revenues have increased from $51.8 million to $115 million, although the first lost $11.5 million in the first quarter.

The underwriters include Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS). The proposed ticker symbol is symbol "PZN."

You can find the IPO filing at the SEC website.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.