By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Speculation about the possibility
of Dell Inc. going private, as well as the latest decline in shares
of Apple Inc., vied for attention on what was shaping up to be a
mostly down day for tech stocks Tuesday.
Dell (DELL) shares rose 2.4% to $12.58, adding to Monday's gains
that came about after reports said the PC giant is in talks with
two private-equity firms about going private. The Wall Street
Journal reported that the companies in the discussions were TPG and
Silverlake Partners.
Analysts that follow Dell said a buyout of the company is
possible, but there are many hurdles to overcome if the world's
third largest PC company goes private.
"The likelihood is low, as it would take sizable financing for a
company of Dell's size, with its $21 billion market cap," said Shaw
Wu of Sterne Agee. "A deal of this size would likely involve
multiple private-equity firms and we estimate that the majority of
[Dell's] businesses remain under structural and secular
pressure."
Apple (AAPL)shares fell $11, or more than 2%, to $490.98. On
Monday, Apple's stock took a hit on reports that the company has
put off orders for some parts for the iPhone 5 due to
weaker-than-expected demand for the smartphone.
Nomura Equity Research analyst Stuart Jeffrey cut his December
quarter iPhone sales estimates to 48 million from 50 million, and
lowered his revenue forecast for Apple to $53 million from $54.2
million, saying that he still believes margins on the iPhone "are
unsustainably high and will fall."
Facebook Inc. (FB) also got some attention as the
social-networking company invited members of the media to an event
at its corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Some analysts
expected Facebook to say more about its mobile efforts at the
event.
Declines also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Oracle Corp.
(ORCL), Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
(NVDA)The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) gave up 18 points to
slip to 3,099, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and
the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) were also recording
small losses.
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