Stockpickr: The Top 10 Battleground Stocks

In March, Blum Capital Partners, a San Francisco investment firm, took a significant position in Avid. Blum has taken positions in education companies such as ITT Educational Services(ESI Quote) and Career Education(CECO Quote), as well as Internet-related companies such as Getty Images(GYI Quote) and Websense(WBSN Quote).

What's interesting is that Blum -- historically a deep value investor with phenomenal returns -- is now betting on beaten-down tech companies. To see all of its top positions, check out the Blum Capital Partners page on Stockpickr.

The shorts in Avid are betting that new products from Apple(AAPL Quote) -- in particular, its "Final Cut" editing system -- will begin to hurt Avid. But Avid has the strongest brand in the business, and high-end professionals will never stop using its products.

With $170 million in net cash and stock that trades at 14 times cash flows, Avid is on solid ground, and any uptick in its fortunes -- which is what the insiders are presumably betting on -- will create a run on the bank for short-sellers.

Another interesting fact to note about Avid is that its institutional ownership is extremely high, something we track with Stockerblog.com Institutionalized Stocks. For those names on this list, the supply of shares for retail investors is extremely small. Again, if this company even begins a share-buyback program, the shorts will get crushed.