As the biggest investor in 3PAR Inc., Menlo Ventures is already slated for a huge windfall this year so it looks like they’re getting ready to jump into the game once again. From an article at Bloomberg, if the group manages their $800 million, they’ll be able to produce the largest fund this year.

But what really caught my attention happened to be their stake in 3PAR.

While a slow IPO market is hurting returns at venture firms, Menlo stands to gain almost $220 million in the past three weeks from its investment in data-storage supplier 3Par. The firm owns 9.37 million 3Par shares, or 15 percent of the company. Hewlett-Packard Co. agreed to buy 3Par yesterday for $2.35 billion, or $33 a share, valuing Menlo’s total stake at about $309 million.

3PAR has been the center of some buyer drama lately reported here on SiliconAngle, with a quick bidding war between Dell and HP raising the stakes. It looks like Menlo Ventures managed to position themselves extremely well for their investments to bear fruit. Also in their track record are Internet technology giants like Hotmail Corp. and IronPort Systems Inc.—Microsoft, of course, picked up Hotmail and Cisco bought IronPort in 2007.

While $800 million may sound like a great deal—especially for this economically poor year—it will not dim the likes of Menlo’s fund from 2005, which reached $1.2 billion. Here’s to those halcyon years of yore and hopefully they’re coming once again to the tech sector.