Zynga, Dell, BlackBerry: Tech Premarket

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Zynga (ZNGA) was a big gainer in premarket trading on Wednesday after the company allayed investors' fears and beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates.

Zynga reported earnings Tuesday of a penny a share and revenue of $311.1 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for a loss of 3 cents a share and sales of $212.1 million.

The San Francisco-based firm, which is keen to cut costs, said that its fourth-quarter headcount was 3,058, down 251 people sequentially. The key Facebook (FB) partner reduced its cash operating expense by $23 million from the third quarter, surpassing its projected cost savings range of $15 million to $20 million.

"We decreased spend in a number of areas, including marketing acquisition, data hosting, and outside services," said Zynga Chief Operating Officer David Ko, during the company's earnings conference call. "We also closed several remote studios, reduced the size of our work force, and rationalized our product pipeline."

Investors responded positively to the fourth-numbers and cost-cutting, pushing Zynga's shares up 3.65% to $2.84 before market open. Zynga was also one of the most active premarket Nasdaq stocks on share volume of 563,645.

Facebook shares crept up 0.14% to $28.68.

Dell (DELL) shares slipped 0.15% to $13.40 a day after the No. 3 PC maker announced that founder and CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners are acquiring the company in a $24.4 billion deal.

Under the terms of the deal, Dell shareholders will receive $13.65 a share in cash, a premium of 25% to the company's closing price Jan. 11, when rumors of the deal emerged.

Dell was another active premarket Nasdaq stock on share volume of 165,334.

Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY), which recently unveiled its much-delayed BlackBerry 10 technology, slipped 3.87% to $15.40. The Canadian handset maker was another active Nasdaq stock on share volume of 592,410.

Expedia (EXPE) shares gained 2.07% to $68.90 in premarket trading after the company comfortably beat analysts' top-line forecasts in its fourth-quarter results. The online travel giant noted particular strength in its hotel bookings business.

Apple (AAPL) shares dipped 0.51% to $455.50.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

Follow @jamesjrogers

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