By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A sharp downshift in the broad
market forced most tech stocks into the red by midday Monday,
though Dell managed to hold onto its gains as new bidders emerged
for the PC maker.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell into the red by 0.4% to
3,234 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 0.4%
and the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index (MSH) fell by 0.6%.
The Dow gave up nearly 70 points, shedding an earlier gain after
comments from the top finance minister in the euro zone suggested
that the much-maligned Cyprus bailout could serve as a model for
future actions.
Notable declines among tech stocks by midday included eBay
(EBAY) , Facebook (FB) , Oracle (ORCL) and IBM (IBM) .
Dell (DELL) shares jumped more than 3% to $14.57 after the
company's board of directors confirmed previous reports that
Blackstone Group (BX) and investor activist Carl Icahn were leading
two separate efforts to launch bids for the company to compete with
a privatization deal offered by founder Michael Dell and Silver
Lake.
Icahn's group is offering to buy $2 billion worth of the
company's shares for $15 a share. Shareholders could elect to take
shares of the new company or cash. The deal is being supported by
major Dell shareholders Southeastern Asset Management and T.Rowe
Price. Blackstone's deal is worth $14.25 per share.
BlackBerry (RIMM) shares fell more than 3.3% to $14.41 after
Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski downgraded the stock to a neutral
rating, citing a "disappointing" launch of the company's Z10
handset at AT&T (T) and Best Buy (BBY) on Friday "with limited
marketing and tepid sell-through" for the U.S. debut of the
device.
"We now assign a 20% probability of success for BB10, down from
30% previously, as the disappointing launch of the Z10 at AT&T
reduces our confidence that sell-through of the BB10 will be
successful in the important U.S. market," the analyst wrote,
referring to the company's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
Yahoo (YHOO) shares were last up 0.6% after the company acquired
Summly, a mobile news reader app for an undisclosed sum.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose by 0.4% to $463.89. The company
acquired WifiSLAM, a maker of indoor GPS technology, for about $20
million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal over the
weekend.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) also held on to a fractional gain.
Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets lifted his price target on
the tech giant to $23 from $21, citing a positive view on the
company's "moonshot" service project "that should enable the
company to better participate in the growing hyperscale segment of
the server market."
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