Safeguard Scientifics gets $100 million from IBM, Compaq

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) said Monday it has raised $50 million each from Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and formed strategic relationships with both companies.

Shares in the incubator of Internet infrastructure companies rose 6 to 48 1/8, or 14 percent Monday. IBM shares were up 1 1/4 to 112 3/4. Compaq shares were down 5/8 to 28 7/8.

The money will be used to buy Internet infrastructure companies, Safeguard said in a statement. Earlier in the month, Safeguard said it was shifting from business-to-business companies to the infrastructure market.

Safeguard recently announced its move into the infrastructure market as a complementary strategy to its acquisitions in B2B and large stake in Internet Capital Group. Several B2B stocks took a tumble following Safeguard's announcement it would refocus on infrastructure, but have since revived.

Over the past nine months, Safeguard has brought public three companies in the infrastructure space -- Pac-West Telecomm (Nasdaq: PACW), US Interactive (Nasdaq: USIT) and OPUS 360 (Nasdaq: OPSU) -- as well as Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE), a B2B investment firm.

-- Reuters contributed to this report.