By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Technology stocks were mostly
lower Monday, and shares of Oracle Corp. slipped after the software
giant announced it was buying Acme Packet Inc. in a $1.7 billion
deal.
Oracle (ORCL) shed 1% after the company said it was acquiring
Acme Packet (APKT) for $29.25 a share. Shares of the networking
technology company soared more than 22% to $29.33.
In a note, Nomura Equity Research analyst Rick Sherlund said
Acme Packet's technology can help Oracle "better enable
communications across service provider and enterprise networks, as
well as across different devices."
"This likely bolsters Oracle's positioning in the mobile space,
as well as helping to build out offerings around the company's
cloud application deployments," he added.
The tech sector also got a lift from shares of BlackBerry (RIMM)
, formerly known as Research In Motion, which began trading under a
new ticker on Monday. BlackBerry was up 6% at $13.77.
The handset maker got a boost from a Bernstein Research upgrade.
Analyst Pierre Ferragu raised his rating to outperform from market
perform saying, "We have grown more confident in the likely success
of the Blackberry 10 launch, supported by low channel inventories,
strong operator support and material pent-up demand."
But tech stocks were mostly down, with the Nasdaq Composite
Index (RIXF) giving up 15 points, or 0.5%, to 3,165.
Among the decliners were Google Inc.(GOOG), which was off 1.2%
at $766.01. BMO Capital downgraded the stock to market perform,
arguing that "investor sentiment has changed materially" given
worries about declining cost-per-clicks and the impact of the
Motorola Mobility acquisition.
Also down were shares of Facebook Inc.(FB), which gave up more
than 2% to $28.91.
Shares of Dell Inc. (DELL) shed 2% to $13.37, while Apple
Inc.(AAPL) was off nearly 1% at $450.37.
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