Tech Stocks in Motion
Updated from 12:46 p.m. EST
Shares of
I.D. Systems
(IDSY)
were among technology's winners Tuesday, rising 18.2% after the company received a government contract to provide hardware, software and services.
The multiple-award schedule contract calls for an initial term of five years -- with three additional five-year option periods. Authorized buyers, covered under the contract, include military and federal civilian agencies, mixed-ownership corporations, the District of Columbia, certain state and local governments, and select international organizations, the company said. Shares of I.D. Systems traded up $1.70 to $11.05.
Compuware
(CPWR)
rose 4.6% after the company reached a settlement with
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
that put an end to a federal trial concerning allegations that IBM infringed upon Compuware's intellectual property and violated antitrust laws. As a result of the settlement agreement, IBM will license $140 million of Compuware software over four years and has offered to buy $260 million in Compuware services over four years as well. What's more, the two companies entered into a cross-licensing deal covering patents related to both companies' businesses. Shares of Compuware traded up 32 cents to $7.29; shares of IBM traded down 1 cent to $89.50.
Shares of
Electronic Arts
(ERTS)
got pummeled after the company lowered its 2005 earnings and sales outlook. The video-game maker now expects pro forma earnings of $1.70 to $1.72 a share on sales of $3.1 billion to $3.13 billion. Previously, the company expected earnings of $1.90 to $1.95 a share on sales of $3.28 billion to $3.33 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had been expecting earnings of $1.93 a share on sales of $3.3 billion. "These results are clearly disappointing," the company said. "While our new releases are performing reasonably well, they have not been able to offset a significant falloff in catalog sales." Shares traded down $11.20, or 16.9%, to $55.15.
Taser International
(TASR)
rose modestly after the company announced the debut of its new XP35 air cartridge, which can achieve distances of up to 35 feet. "While our database indicates that over 96% of our Taser deployments are between 0-15 feet, there has been feedback of a desire to see our Taser devices achieve longer ranges" in certain situations, the company said. The XP35 cartridge is expected to ship during the second quarter of 2005. Shares traded up 6 cents to $12.43.
Shares of
Retek
(RETK)
traded actively after the company finally agreed to be acquired by
Oracle
(ORCL) - Get Report
for about $670 million, or $11.25 a share. The deal was accepted after
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
dropped out of the bidding war. SAP, which had offered Retek shareholders $11 a share, said it dropped out of the bidding race because it had "concluded that neither our shareholders nor retail customers would benefit from an auction process that would further inflate the purchase price, and in the long run, not deliver the returns we demand." Oracle said the acquisition of Retek would strengthen its position in the retail applications market. Retek is a good fit for Oracle because nearly 80% of Retek's customers, according to Oracle, run their Retek applications on the Oracle database. Shares of Retek traded down 25 cents to $11.21; shares of SAP traded down 37 cents to $39.31; and Oracle traded down 16 cents to $12.49.
Other technology movers included
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
, down 21 cents to $23.99;
Sun Microsystems
(SUNW) - Get Report
, down 18 cents to $4.03;
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
, down 2 cents to $17.92;
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
, down 48 cents to $23.02; and
Lucent
(LU)
, down 7 cents to $2.74.