Comcast, Rackspace, Groupon, Apple: Tech Premarket

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Comcast (CMCSA) was a big gainer in premarket trading after the company reached a deal to buy the remaining 49% stake in NBCUniversal from General Electric (GE) for $16.7 billion.

The deal came earlier than observers were expecting. Comcast and GE formed the NBCUniversal joint venture in 2009.

Shares of the media giant rose 8.67% to $42.35 following the news. Comcast was also the most active premarket Nasdaq stock on share volume of 2,686,133. Shares of New York Stock Exchange-traded GE climbed 3.1% to $23.28.

Rackspace Hosting (RAX) shares, however, fell more than 10% after the company missed analysts' fourth-quarter revenue estimates.

The San Antonio-based firm increased revenue 25% to $353 million, below Wall Street's forecast of $355.42 million. The AT&T (T) and Savvis rival said fourth-quarter revenue was helped by currency exchange rates.

Rackspace, which doesn't break out non-GAAP EPS, said it earned 21 cents a share on net income of $30 million, compared with 18 cents a share and net income of $25 million in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of 21 cents a share.

Shares of Rackspace were off 10.82% to $66.87 before market open.

Groupon (GRPN) shares gained 6.81% to reach $5.65 after Sterne Agee upgraded the daily deals site to 'buy' from 'neutral', citing "a more constructive longer-term view of the company." The Chicago firm was also one of the most active premarket Nasdaq stocks on share volume of 527,380.

Shares of Apple (AAPL), which updated processors and prices of its MacBook Pro with Retina Display on Wednesday, rose 0.13% to $468.5 on Wednesday.

Zynga (ZNGA) was another gainer, rising 2.75% to $3.33 on share volume of 467,925.

Vodafone (VOD) shares slipped 1.69% to $26.77. The telecom giant was also another active premarket Nasdaq stocks on share volume of 1,144,556.

Shares of Intel (INTC), which discussed its plans for a Web TV service on Tuesday, crept up 0.14% to $21.22 in premarket trading. Speaking during AllThingsD's D:Dive Into Media conference on Tuesday, Erik Huggers, corporate vice president of Intel media, said that the Web TV service will be launched later this year.

Cisco (CSCO), which reports its second-quarter results after market close, rose 0.62% to $21.10.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

Follow @jamesjrogers

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