Tech Winners & Losers: Activision

Tech stocks slipped into the red Friday, along with the major market indices, despite strong earnings reports from companies such as Activision(ATVI Quote), Priceline.com(PCLN Quote) and RealNetworks(RNWK Quote).

Shares of video-games publisher Activision added $3.12, or 11.3%, to $30.82 after the company topped Street expectations for the fourth quarter and offered a strong outlook for the year.

Activision reported net income of $44.2 million vs. a loss of $14.4 million, the year before. Excluding charges, it posted earnings of 17 cents a share, compared with a loss of 4 cents a share a year ago. Revenue rose 92.8% to $602.5 million, beating Street expectations of 5 cents a share in earnings on revenue of $373.1 million.

For fiscal year 2009, Activision expects net revenue of $2.75 billion and earnings of 72 cents a share. Excluding the impact of deferred revenue for online-enabled games, the company forecast revenue of $3.1 billion for the year. That compares to Street estimates of $2.8 billion in revenue on earnings of $1.18 a share.

Digital infrastructure services company VeriSign(VRSN Quote) was up $1.43, or 3.9%, to $38.22 after its first-quarter results beat analysts' estimates. VeriSign guided revenue from its core businesses in the current quarter in the range of $228 million to $233 million, in line with Street estimates of $228.1 million.

Sprint Nextel(S Quote) continued to gain on speculation of a buyout by Deutsche Telekom(DT Quote). Shares of Sprint were up 55 cents, or 6.2%, to $9.53.

RealNetworks(RNWK Quote) was up 92 cents, or 14%, to $7.39 after the company said it expects second-quarter revenue ahead of Street estimates. The company also said it will spin off its games division and plans to buy back up to $50 million of stock.