Technology Firms Regain Investor InterestTechnology Firms Regain Investor Interest

Suddenly, the public stock sale of technology companies is recapturing Wall Street's attention.

NetScreen Technologies Inc., which makes network security systems and appliances for firewalls and virtual private networks, raised $160 million in a public stock sale Wednesday, selling 10 million shares at $16 each. The next day, software maker Nassda Corp. pushed through a $55 million initial public offering of its own, selling half as many shares at $11 each. Both companies traded higher than their offering price, closing Thursday at $21.95 and $15.45, respectively.

Lawson Software Inc., which got things started the week before with the first IPO for a Web software company in more than a year, closed Thursday at $17.51, above its $14 offering price.

NetScreen almost folded 18 months ago when a planned merger with Efficient Networks Inc. fell through, says John Pescatore, a research director at Gartner. Since then, he says, the company has done two things right: "It leaped on the firewall appliance platform, rather than software," and it offered a wide range of products that could be managed in a consistent manner.