Wednesday's Tech Winners & Losers

Updated from 11:52 a.m. EDT

Tech stocks were climbing Wednesday, boosted by a couple of stocks making dramatic moves on merger and earnings news.

Boston Communications(BCGI Quote) soared 70.9% after the software company agreed to be acquired by Megasoft, an Indian company, for about $65 million, or $3.60 a share. The all-cash deal represents an 81% premium to Boston's closing price of $1.99 on Tuesday. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. Shares were up $1.41 to $3.40.

New Brunswick Scientific(NBSC Quote) vaulted 39% after the maker of scientific equipment agreed to be acquired by Eppendorf Group for about $110 million in cash. The privately held company is paying $11.50 a share, which represents a premium of 43% over New Brunswick's closing price of $8.03 on Tuesday. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. Shares were up $3.13 to $11.16.

Shares of Amtech Systems(ASYS Quote) climbed 20.7% after the supplier of production and automation systems for the semiconductor, solar cell, silicon wafer and microelectromechanical industries received $4.4 million in new solar orders for diffusion processing systems. "We continue to execute our growth plan and generate strong momentum and customer interest for our products within the rapidly growing solar market," Amtech said. Shares closed up $2.07 to $12.07.

Disappointing earnings guidance pummeled a pair of software companies.

Shares of Compuware(CPWR Quote) plunged 20.3% after the software company warned that first-quarter earnings and revenue would be lower than expected. The company expects break-even earnings on revenue of about $278 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial project earnings of 10 cents a share on revenue of $303 million. "I'm extremely disappointed in the company's performance this quarter," the company said. "Compuware's comprehensive evaluation and restructuring of its business -- while vital to the company's long-term ability to grow -- distracted sales efforts during the quarter." Shares closed down $2.47 to $9.70.

Elsewhere, Vital Images(VTAL Quote) plummeted 21.9% after the business-software company issued a second-quarter profit warning and cut its full-year revenue forecast. The company sees second-quarter loss of 2 cents to 5 cents a share on revenue of $15.1 million to $15.4 million. Analysts project earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $22.6 million. "We are extremely disappointed with our second quarter results," the company said. "After posting year-over-year quarterly revenue growth of at least 30 percent for 10 consecutive quarters, we were not able to deliver the level of performance we expected."

Looking ahead, Vital Images now expects full-year revenue of $75 million to $80 million, down from an earlier view of $90 million to $95 million. Analysts project revenue of $93 million. Shares closed down $5.79 to $20.68.

As for the broader technology sector, the Nasdaq 100 was trading up more than 12 points to about 1984.