It's once again time to vote in The Flashies, our 2010 TechFlash Newsmaker Awards. Today, we've got an important category: Startup Deal of the Year.

The tough economy has had an impact on M&A transactions, IPOs and venture capital financings. But, nonetheless, a crop of Pacific Northwest companies emerged with successful deals in 2010. Continue reading for background on each nominee, and cast your vote for the one you consider most deserving.

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To find out the winners, join us Dec. 1 at the Experience Music Project for the big Flashies bash, where we'll be handing out awards in more than a dozen categories and taking a fun look back on the year in tech.

Voting will continue on TechFlash throughout this month, so check back each weekday. A big thanks to sponsors BDO and Filter, and media sponsor VentureBeat for helping make the Flashies possible. And a special thanks again to BDO for sponsoring this category.

Apptio: Sunny Gupta has big things in store for Apptio, the Bellevue software startup which earlier this month closed a $20 million venture round. The serial entrepreneur matter-of-factly says that he wants to build the next big technology company in the Pacific Northwest, an ambitious goal but one made a bit easier given the financial support from the likes of from Cisco, Madrona Venture Group, Greylock and Andreessen Horowitz.

Bonanza: Angel investors and VCs flocked to Bonanza (formerly Bonanzle) when the Seattle Internet startup started raising money. Profitable and growing, the Bill Harding-led startup had refused venture financing throughout its history as it built out its online marketplace for handbags, jewelry and other crafts. But that changed in April when the company lined up $1 million from a who's who of Seattle angel investors and VCs. Backers include Ignition Partners, Voyager Capital, Founder's Co-op, Curious Office Partners and prominent Seattle angels such as Ben Elowitz of Wetpaint and Andy Liu of BuddyTV. The company used some of the cash in September to buy Seattle's 1000 Markets.

Cequint: Founded in 2004, the maker of the City ID mobile software product had flown under the radar for much if its history. But that changed in September when the 70-person company -- led by entrepreneur Rick Hennessey -- sold to Transaction Network Services in a cash and stock deal that could be worth up to $112.5 million. The Seattle company's software, which identifies the city of incoming calls, is now available on more than 30 million handsets. Cequint raised $8.6 million over the past six years

Jambool: Ok, technically, Jambool was a San Francisco headquartered company. But the bulk of its employees were in Seattle as was its primary investor, Madrona Venture Group. The company's exec team spun out of Amazon.com. So, we squeezed Jambool into the mix. It's acquisition by Google for a reported purchase price of $75 million certainly was a sweet return for investors, given that the startup had raised $5 million in venture capital just a year before. Jambool is the maker of virtual currency system known as Social Gold.

Picnik: Terms of Picnik's sale to Google were never disclosed, though we heard the price tag on the online photo editing service was in the $50 million range. Not a bad outcome for Picnik co-creators Jonathan Sposato, Mike Harrington and Darrin Massena since they never raised venture capital or angel financing. The acquisition of Picnik was also notable since it marked the second time that Sposato had sold a company to Google.

Precision Polling: Seattle entrepreneurs Gaurav Oberoi and Chuck Groom are turning out to be a pretty powerful team. For the second time in three years, they sold one of their bootstrapped startups. In June, the co-creators of the Seattle Tech Startups group sold Precision Polling to Survey Monkey in a deal of undisclosed size. That followed the 2007 acquisition of Bill Monk, which Oberoi and Groom sold to Obopay.

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Tickets for the Flashies event on Dec. 1 available here.

Previous Categories, Voting Still Open: Buzzword of the Year... Newsmaker of the Year... Tech Debacle of the Year ... Tech Platform of 2010 ... Breakout Performance of 2010 ... Tech Move/Hire of the Year.