5 IPOs Tech Needs Now

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Tech investors have been sorting through some seriously stale inventory lately.

The market, outside the Apple(AAPL) aisle, is lined with shelves of picked-over dregs. Intel(INTC), EMC(EMC) Oracle(ORCL), IBM(IBM)... How's a stock buyer expected to get excited about a bunch of moldy names that have outlived their expiration dates?

What happened to the fruit of Silicon Valley's lush fields of innovation? Where are those garage-conceived varietals, carefully nurtured by venture capitalist, hand-picked by investment bankers and trucked by special delivery to Wall Street?

For the past three years, big tech companies like Apple, Microsoft(MSFT), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and Cisco(CSCO) have taken the fun out of the game. Content to grow revenue, squeeze costs, hoard cash and crush competitors, the hunkering giants have flattened the once-vibrant tech sector.

But judging by a list of companies registered to go IPO in the coming months, there seems to be nothing tasty in the pipeline for investors with an appetite for new equity issues.

Wall Street needs a new crop of hearty growth stocks, something big and juicy like a new Google(GOOG) or maybe a crisp young Apple.

Here are five private tech companies that investors would love to sink their teeth into.