Even in the midst of the economic meltdown, consider these mega-billion-dollar cash hoards of big tech companies:

Microsoft (MSFT): $20.7 billion

Cisco (CSCO): $29.5 billion

Apple (AAPL): $25.6 billion

Intel (INTC): $11.8 billion

Oracle (ORCL): $10.6 billion

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ): $10.2 billion

Google (GOOG): $15.9 billion

Yahoo (YHOO): $3.5 billion

Of this moneybags list, Apple and Google have zero debt, with the others not having much at all to speak of. Better still, all typically generate a whole lot of cash flow quarterly, even in the downturn.

And since very few tech companies like to hand over dividends or buy back much stock–kind of a minor sacrilege in the space since it means they have no innovative new ideas to fund–BoomTown asked a big exec at one of these companies when the buying spree of both public and private companies might begin.

“Like everyone else, we are waiting for the bottom,” said the exec. “So who knows?”

Said another: “No one wants to buy when prices could just keep going down. The trick is to buy before the really great deals out there collapse.”

And, even as some tasty targets are suffering and might need a lifeline, none of them want to necessarily sell out at all-time lows either.

“We will start eating our toner and paper first,” joked one start-up exec, whose company is increasingly strapped for cash, even after a number of cost-cutting moves.

Interestingly, the only standout in the buying game has been Oracle, which has been in bargain-hunting mode, making 10 acquisitions for about $750 million in the last year, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal today.

While this amount is small potatoes to Oracle, which has typically been known for doing huge merger and acquisition deals, it is still some activity in a decidedly inactive space.

Oracle has especially focused on private firms, as the private-equity investing and venture capital has dried up and IPOs are an impossible dream.

And while another well-known M&A addict, Cisco, has recently issued $4 billion in debt to fund more purchases, and Microsoft execs have noted recently that it is a buyer’s market, it seems Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is the only one currently putting his big money where his big mouth is.

So, when do you think tech companies should commence to gobbling too?

BoomTown has been lagging in getting up this lovely video I did from a dinner party last Thursday, thrown for NetSuite’s tenth anniversary, which was held at one of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s many houses–this one in the tony Pacific Heights section of San Francisco.

NetSuite (N) is one of the pioneers in the broadly termed software-as-a-service space, selling an “integrated web-based business software suite, including Accounting software/ERP software, CRM software, and Ecommerce software.” Essentially, that’s hosted software solutions for medium-sized businesses or divisions of larger companies.

Zzzzzzzzzz, right?

Actually, it is an important topic, as businesses actually do begin to embrace the idea of putting themselves increasingly in the so-called cloud, which is Silicon Valley’s trendiest term du jour.

It is a topic, in fact, that Microsoft is going to be blabbing about all week, starting today. The SaaS space, including its cloud computing efforts, will be Topic A at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

In any case, after a lovely tour of Ellison’s house–Ellison co-founded the company with former Oracle (ORCL) exec Evan Goldberg and has been a major NetSuite investor–by NetSuite’s PR guru Brooke Hammerling, and some dinner chatter, I did an interesting video interview with NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson about the direction of the sector.

Here’s the video:

This past Saturday night, BoomTown attended the tony San Francisco book party for Jonathan Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It.”

It was hosted by megablogger Arianna Huffington and Melanie Ellison, an old friend of Zittrain’s from high school, as it turned out.

And BoomTown took our Flip video camera, of course.

For one, it was held at Ellison’s stunning Pacific Heights home, with a lot of Internet and San Francisco wattage in attendance, including Melanie’s husband, Larry Ellison, and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

By the way, Zittrain is professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

And the book is actually not about stopping the Web–perish the thought, as what would I do with my life without my beloved Internet, which I would marry if it were legal?

Instead, according to Zittrain, my beloved Web is in deep, deep trouble!

He is justifiably worried about innovation continuing and the book is a bracing call to fix some of the Internet’s serious structural and other problems, before it collapses in a giant heap of too-tightly controlled mundanity.

I’m for that! Let Web Wackiness Worldwide (WWW!) reign!

In that spirit, here is a video of the party, in which I ask everyone the key question: What is the future of the Internet?

The video includes some book party speeches and thoughts from Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, Zittrain and, of course, Huffington (and I also got her to impersonate Tracey Ullman impersonating Arianna to up the wacky quotient) .

And also three Internet clowns trying to impersonate me. Wackier still!

Here’s the video (there is an odd voice/video disconnect in the Zittrain and clown sections at the very end that I am trying to fix):

Is it just me or has the world turned upside down?

One sign: Longtime Microsoft (MSFT) nemesis and Oracle (ORCL) pooh-bah Larry Ellison gave an apparent thumbs up to the software giant’s attempt to take over Yahoo (YHOO) in an article by Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times yesterday.

After noting that the current trend toward hostile tech takeovers were due to his moves against PeopleSoft and BEA (”They are copying us,” he said. “Others would be foolish not to try.”), he seemed to say Yahoo’s CEO and Co-Founder Jerry Yang was too “emotional” about the situation.

Then, in the biggest surprise, the colorful Silicon Valley icon was quoted in the article: “Mr. Ellison, whose distaste for Microsoft is legendary, hinted that he’s actually rooting for his longtime nemesis over his neighbor, Yahoo. ‘I’ve certainly watched Bill for years,’ he said, referring to Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and co-founder. ‘MSN is modestly successful. It would be a formidable portal combined with Yahoo.’”

Next week: False prophets–and if we are talking Web 2.0, profits!