Yahoo, RIM, Micron Technology: Winners & Losers

(Updates to add Yahoo, Linear Technology, Altera, Texas Instruments, Avago Technologies and updated shares prices.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Micron Technology(MU) shares jumped as much as 6.8% following news that Japanese chipmaker Elpida will seek an equity tie-up with the company.

Elpida has significant debt repayments coming up and the memory chip market has been steadily declining. The combined entity would have more than 20% of the DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) space, as it tries to compete with Samsung Electronics, the market leader.

Today's move by Micron Technology made it the No. 5 gainer on the benchmark S&P 500 Index.

Dell(DELL) shares rose 1.8% to $16.36 following news hedge fund heavyweight David Einhorn has taken a stake in the company.

CNBC reported Einhorn's hedge fund, Greenlight Capital Inc., was long Dell in the fourth quarter. According to his letter to investors in the fund, Einhorn purchased Dell at an average price of $15.53, about 4% lower than today's price.

Yahoo(YHOO) was up 2.8% to $15.86 after the media company said after the market closed yesterday that co-founder Jerry Yang severed his ties with the company. That increased optimism new CEO Scott Thompson could pursue asset sales or tie-ups without as much interference.

Semiconductor stocks were largely moving higher, after a stronger than expected earnings report from Linear Technology(LLTC). Linear Technology reported second quarter revenue of $294.3 million and earnings of 45 cents per share. Wall Street analysts were looking for earnings of 39 cents per share and $293 million in revenue.

The company also said it sees third quarter revenue rising between 4% and 8% higher than the previous quarter, which implies sales higher than the $302 million Wall Street is looking for. Linear Technology was soaring, up 10.5% to $33.01.

Other chip companies, such as Texas Instruments(TXN), Altera(ALTR) and Avago Technologies(AVGO) were moving higher as a result of the report from Linear Technology.

Research In Motion(RIMM) shares were off 2.9% to $16.96 after Samsung denied the rumor that it may potentially acquire part, or all, of Research In Motion.

Research In Motion, however, is rumored to be actively shopping itself, as it tries to compete in the smartphone market against the likes of Apple(AAPL) and Google(GOOG).

Tech sector stocks are generally higher in line with the broader NASDAQ, which is up 1.2% on better-than-expected economic data.

Interested in more on Research In Motion? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

Check out our new tech blog, Tech Trends.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

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