We told you Joyent is a company to watch in 2012. And today it landed an extra $85 million in funding in advance of NodeSummit, an event dedicated to the open source JavaScript platform Node.js. Since hiring Node.js creator Ryan Dahl in 2009, Joyent has been Node.js’s major corporate backer and the company offers a Node.js platform-as-a-service. But Joyent’s main business remains providing infrastructure-as-a-service to its international base of enterprise customers.

Most of the round of funding came from Weather Investment II, which was advised by Accelero Capital, an investment firm that specializes in “telecommunication and related media and technology companies.” Also participating in the round was Telefónica Digital, a division of the Telefónica, the third largest telecom provider in the world.

SiliconAngle founder John Furrier says the round of funding is likely a play to raise the value of the company in an acquisition. “When you see funding at this level what it means is that they are trying to set the M&A market,” Furrier says. “Meaning the valuation sets the buy out price.”

According to Furrier Joyent is ripe for acquisiton and has been approached by possible suitors and Joyent rejected any overtures. “Joyent represents a big piece on the chess board from startup market to into the cloud platform,” he says. “Getting both the developer community and the commercial marketplace is the holy grail in any emerging growth market.”

Last year IaaS providers were hot properties among telecom providers. Terremark was acquired by Verizon, Time Warner Cable acquired NaviSite and Savvis was bought-out by CenturyLink. A deep pocketed telecom could be eying Joyent, possibly Telefónica.

Joyent could also be preparing for an IPO.

We’ll be covering how this develops, along with Joyent’s plans for Node.js, at NodeSummit. We’ll be broadcasting live on theCube during the whole event.