Thurs - Thomas Weisel going public

In a sign that the technology bull market must be returning, one of the niche banking outfits to emerging technology firms is going public.

Thomas Weisel Partners yesterday filed with US regulators to raise as much as $65M in an IPO which should occur in the next handful of months.

Thomas Weisel was founded six years ago at the height of the last tech boom, to provide advisory, underwriting, equity research and brogerage services focused on growth industries such as technology and healthcare.

Weisel's results since the heady days of 2000, where they earned over $100M on revenues just short of half a billion, slumped in 2002, nearly halving revenues from 2000 and have since then gradually recovered to revenues of $283.4M last year, with a small profit.

It will be interesting to see how their IPO goes. But, if you believe that the next couple of years could see a technology bull market, then they should be a good investment.