Tech Winners & Losers: Yahoo!
SAN FRANCISCO - Tech stocks were up Wednesday on news that activist investor Carl Icahn may be considering a proxy fight against the board of Yahoo! (YHOO) .
Shares of the Internet company were up 45 cents, or 1.7%, to $27.01 on heavy volume. The news also gave
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
a boost, as investors speculated that the software giant would still be open to a buyout of Yahoo! Microsoft was up 30 cents, or 1%, to $30.08.
Shares of wireless provider
Virgin Mobile USA
(VM)
jumped after the company confirmed it is in deal talks with Korea's SK Telecom. Virgin's shares climbed $1.42, or 46.7%, to $4.46, before falling back to $3.62 in recent trading.
Video-game developer
Electronic Arts
(ERTS)
was off $1.63, or 3%, to $52.94 after the company
forecast weaker-than-expected earnings
Tuesday.
EA reported a net loss of $94 million, or 30 cents a share, in the quarter just ended vs. a loss of $25 million, or 8 cents a share, for the same quarter a year ago. For the current fiscal year, the company said earnings would range from $1.30 to $1.70 a share. Analysts were expecting $1.73 a share.
Shares of
Electronic Data Systems
(EDS)
continued to move higher Wednesday, a day after
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
said it will buy the outsourcing company founded by Ross Perot for $13.9 billion. EDS was up 4 cents, or 0.2%, to $24.38 on very heavy volume. H-P was up $2.03, or 4.6%, to $46.30, regaining most of what it lost on Tuesday.
H-P competitor
EMC
(EMC)
was also up 53 cents, or 3.3%, to $16.51.