Thursday's Winners & Losers: Millennium Pharmaceuticals

Shares rise 48.9% on news of a buyout.
By TSC Staff ,

Millennium Pharmaceuticals

( MLNM) said Thursday that it will be acquired by Japan's largest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, in

a deal worth $8.8 billion

-- the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese drugmaker to date. Takeda is paying $25 a share, or a 53% premium to Millennium's closing price of $16.35 a share on Wednesday. Shares rose $7.99, or 48.9%, to $24.34.

Shares of

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

gathered steam following a report in the

Wall Street Journal

that it

may be close

to merging its online operations with

Time Warner's

(TWX)

AOL in a bid to rebuff

Microsoft's

(MSFT) - Get Report

unsolicited offer for the company.

Microsoft, which has made a $31-a-share offer for Yahoo!, is not sitting idle. It is reportedly talking to

News Corp.

(NWS) - Get Report

to partner on its Yahoo! bid.

Yahoo!'s stock rose 85 cents, or 3.1%, to $28.62. Microsoft was up 34 cents, or $1.2%, to $29.23.

Pharma stocks were also green, particularly

Wyeth

( WYE) and

Bristol-Myers Squibb

(BMY) - Get Report

, which added 4.2% and 2.7%, respectively.

Among other winners,

Ikon Office Solutions

( IKN) jumped 26.5% to $9.92. The Malvern, Pa.-based provider of document management solutions raised guidance for the second quarter, forecasting earnings per share between 22 cents and 24 cents, up from a previous look of 16 cents to 19 cents. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were looking for 18 cents. Cross Research upgraded the stock to buy from hold with a price target of $11.

National Semiconductor

(NSM)

also gained $1.33, or 6.8%, to $20.77 following an upgrade to neutral from sell by Dhanda, the BofA analyst.

On the losing side,

Super Micro Computer

(SMCI) - Get Report

shares dropped 19.1% to $7.63. The provider of high-performance server solutions forecast third-quarter results for its fiscal 2008. Super Micro predicted revenue of $136.5 million to $137 million and EPS between 12 cents and 13 cents. Two analysts polled by Thomson are looking for EPS of 19 cents.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.

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