Company Report: EDS, ARW, GE, HWP, SSOL, MCD, MSFT, TWX, MPPP, More

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M&A Earnings/revenue Analyst actions Offerings/stock actions Miscellany

Downgrades rained down onto Electronic Data Systems(EDS Quote) this morning as Merrill Lynch downgraded the company to accumulate from buy, Goldman Sachs cut it to market outperform from its U.S. buy list, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter axed its rating to outperform from strong buy, lowering its price target to 75 from 90. Investors punished the stock today, which closed down 14 11/16, or 25.4%, to 43 1/8.

Yesterday, the company warned that future revenues will be significantly lower. Merrill's Stephen McClellan called the announcement a "major disappointment."

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

The two largest distributors of electronics components, Arrow Electronics(ARW Quote) and Avnet(AVT Quote), along with British private equity firm Schroder Ventures, have formed a consortium that has emerged as the leading bidder for Veba's(VEB Quote) electronics division with an offer of about $2.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation. Arrow Electronics boosted 2 1/16, or 5.6%, to 39 1/8; Avnet rose 11/16 to 73 11/16; Veba fell 3/16 to 50 13/16.

The newspaper reported the sources as saying if the consortium's offer is successful, the companies plan to divide the assets of the unit, which would help Arrow and Avnet avoid antitrust problems. ...