By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Technology stocks were mostly
lower Monday, and shares of Oracle Corp. slipped after the
corporate-software giant announced it was buying Acme Packet Inc.
in a $1.7 billion deal.
Oracle (ORCL) shed 3% to close at $35.13 after the company said
it was acquiring Acme Packet (APKT) for $29.25 a share. Shares of
the Bedford, Mass.-based networking-technology company soared 23.7%
to $29.59.
In a note, Nomura Equity Research analyst Rick Sherlund wrote
that 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 said.
The sector also got a lift from shares of BlackBerry (RIMM),
formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., which began trading
under a new ticker Monday. BlackBerry was up 15% to close at
$14.98.
The handset maker was bolstered by 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 48 points, or 1.5%, to close at 3,131.
Among the decliners were Google Inc. (GOOG), which was off 2.1%
to close at $759.02. 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 5.5%
at $28.11.
Dell Inc. (DELL) shed 2.6% at $13.27, while Apple Inc. (AAPL)
was off 2.5% to close at $442.32.
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires