Why Donald Trump Will Be a 'Mixed Bag' for Tech Investors

The election of Donald Trump is clearly a "mixed bag" for technology investors and investment bankers, says Ted Smith, president of Union Square Advisors. Trump has also talked about being a trustbuster with regard to some of the bigger deals in the markets and there has been a resurgence of activity by traditional large corporate acquirers this year including AT&T (T) - Get Report , Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report , Oracle (ORCL) - Get Report and Cisco (CSCO) - Get Report . There has also been widespread divestiture activity by the likes of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) - Get Report , Intel (INTC) - Get Report and Dell as these companies seek to reposition themselves for improved revenue growth. Smith expects the already high level of tech-focused activity by private equity firms to continue in 2017. There have been 10 take-private transactions valued at over $1 billion already announced in 2016, more than any other year in the past decade. As for the IPO market, Smith expects it to pick up in 2017 after a moribund 2016.