Dell (DELL) - Get Report CEO Michael Dell is expected to announce a deal with Ariba (ARBA) later today.
Dell gained 3 1/2, or 6.8%, to 54 3/4, while Ariba shed 7 3/8 to 298. Dell said that the company's growth is returning after the Y2K slowdown and the fourth-quarter component problems.
Earlier today,
Banc of America Securities
and
Bear Stearns
upgraded Dell. Banc of America upgraded Dell to strong buy from buy. Bear Stearns upgraded Dell to buy from attractive.
Tribune
(TRB)
dropped 6 3/8, or 17.1%, to 30 13/16 after it said it is buying
Times Mirror
(TMC)
. Times Mirror soared 37 11/16, or 78.6%, to 85 5/8. Tribune is the publisher of the
Chicago Tribune
, and also owns numerous television stations in addition to the
Chicago Cubs
Major League Baseball
franchise. Times Mirror is publisher of the
Los Angeles Times
and
Newsday
. Following completion of the deal, Tribune Company will have 11 daily newspapers, 22 television stations and four radio stations.
Credit Suisse First Boston
downgraded Tribune to hold from buy.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
Six big Wall Street firms and
Communicator
announced the creation of
Securities.Hub
, an e-commerce concern that will host a series of online marketplaces linking firms with institutional investors.
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
,
J.P. Morgan
(JPM) - Get Report
,
Lehman Brothers
(LEH)
,
Merrill Lynch
(MER)
,
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
(MWD)
and
Citigroup's
(C) - Get Report
Salomon Smith Barney
will own a majority interest in the business. Communicator will provide the infrastructure and operate the business and have a minority interest. Goldman Sachs lost 1 7/8 to 110 3/8; J.P. Morgan jumped 5 15/16, or 5.6%, to 112; Lehman Brothers lost 1 5/8 to 80 ¿; Merrill Lynch dropped 3 7/16 to 101 1/2; Morgan Stanley Dean Witter moved down 3 7/8 and Citigroup was unchanged at 49.
CoreComm Limited
(COMM) - Get Report
climbed 1 1/8 to 49 after it said it is buying
Voyager.net
(VOYN)
for about $540 million in cash and stock. Voager.net gained 1 5/8, or 12.5%, to 14 5/8.
E*Trade
(EGRP)
lost 3/4 to 25 3/4 after it said it is buying
Card Capture Services
, the largest independent network of centrally managed automated teller machines in the United States. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
was unchanged at 77 13/16 after it and
Fiat
said they formed a strategic industrial alliance. General Motors will buy a 20% stake in Fiat for $2.4 billion in GM stock. GM also said it will buy back $2.4 billion of its common stock by the end of the year and said it increased its
Hughes
(GMH)
exchange offer to $9 billion from $8 billion. Hughes lost 1 7/16 to 128 1/4.
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
said it is teaming up with
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
,
Ericsson
(ERICY)
,
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
,
Motorola
(MOT)
,
Nokia
(NOK) - Get Report
,
Palm
(PALM)
,
Symbian
and others to supply products and services to bring e-business applications to wireless devices. IBM gained 2 1/4 to 107 1/2, Cisco slipped 3/16 to 136 3/16, Ericsson dropped 3 5/16, Intel rose 1 15/16 to 122 1/8, Motorola moved down 8 1/2 to 166 3/8, Nokia slipped 7/8 to 214 1/8 and Palm fell 5 11/16, or 8%, to 64 5/16.
i2 Technologies
(ITWO)
shed 16 13/16, or 8.1%, to 191 3/16 after it said it is buying
Aspect Development
(ASDV)
for $9.3 billion. Aspect Development popped 11 13/16, or 13.9%, to 96 13/16. According to the terms, i2 would swap 0.55 share for each Aspect share after Aspect's 2-for-1 stock split. After the merger is completed, Aspect shareholders will own 18% of the company.
Separately, i2 said it has entered a $280 million stock deal to acquire closely held
Supplybase
. i2 said the deals would not effect fiscal 2000 cash earnings but would contribute to the fiscal 2001 report.
L-3 Communications
(LLL) - Get Report
lost 5/8 to 43 15/16 after it said it is buying the
Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System
product line from
Honeywell
(HON) - Get Report
for $255 million. Honeywell slipped 3/4 to 44 5/8.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
moved down 3 to 98 after it and
Andersen Consulting
agreed to a $1 billion pact to form a joint venture called
Avenade
, a technology services firm that will employ 5,000 and contribute to building Internet businesses using Microsoft software.
Pitney Bowes
(PBI) - Get Report
lost 3/16 to 45 15/16 after it said it formed an alliance with a unit of
Siemens AG
to provide messaging solutions. Pitney Bowes and Siemens will provide software, hardware and Web-based applications that reduce processing time, speed access and prioritize the delivery of important mail and messages.
Radio One
(ROIA)
lost 2 5/16 to 63 7/16 after it said it will buy 12 stations from
Clear Channel
(CCU) - Get Report
for $1.3 billion and three stations from
Shirk
for $40 million. Radio One will also buy
Davis Broadcasting
for $24 million Clear Channel lost 1/8 to 62..
Texas Utilities
(TXU)
inched up 1/16 to 26 11/16 after it said it was launching an offer for Spanish utility
Hydroelectrica del Cantabrico
for 21.25 euros ($20.54) a share, or 2.4 billion euros ($2.32 billion).
Tommy Hilfiger
(TOM)
is believed to be in talks to buy all or part of privately owned
Calvin Klein
,
The Sunday Telegraph
in London reported. Calvin Klein could be valued at $1 billion, the newspaper said. Tommy Hilfiger edged up 0.7%, to 13 9/16.
Ventro
(VNTR) - Get Report
shed 19 5/16, or 10.7%, to 162 and
Webmethods
(WEBM)
lifted 17 1/2, or 7.5%, to 250 after the companies said they entered a software deal.
Earnings/revenue reports and previews
(
Earnings estimates from First Call; new highs and lows on a closing basis unless otherwise specified. Earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified.
)
Anixter
(AXE) - Get Report
jumped 4 7/16, or 22.5%, to 24 1/8 after it said it expects first-quarter earnings to exceed estimates by 15% to 20%. The company said it expects earnings between 38 cents and 40 cents a share, compared with the year-ago earnings of 19 cents. The current two-analyst estimate is for 34 cents a share.
B/E Aerospace
(BEAV)
lost 1 9/16, or 17.4%, to 7 7/16 after it warned investors that it would post a fourth-quarter loss of $10 million. The eight-analyst estimate expected B/E to report a 37-cent profit.
Progressive
(PGR) - Get Report
lost 1/2 to 49 1/4 after it said its first-quarter earnings would fall below estimates. The current 14-analyst estimate calls for earnings of 50 cents a share.
Offerings and stock actions
Applied Micro Circuits
(AMCC)
fell 9 15/16 to 281 1/16 after it set a 2-for-1 stock split.
Celgene
(CELG) - Get Report
lost 5 1/2 to 163 after it set a 3-for-1 stock split.
Commerce One's
(CMRC)
shed 7 9/16 to 250 after its board approved a 2-for-1 stock split.
Datalink.net
(DLK)
added 14 1/16, or 27%, to 66 after it set a 2-for-1 stock split.
Luxottica
(LUX)
gained 1/16 to 23 11/16 after it said it plans a 2-for-1 stock split and will apply for listing on the
Milan Stock Exchange
by the end of 2000.
Nortel Networks
(NT)
declined 1 3/4 to 121 11/16 after he said it plans to spin off its
Netgear
division as a separate company. Nortel said that
Pequot Capital
would take a $15 million stake in the new company.
J.P. Morgan said
Sony
(SNE) - Get Report
will split its ADRs 2-for-1. Sony sank 18 1/4, or 7.4%, to 225 1/2.
Analyst actions
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
raised
AMR
(AMR)
to strong buy from outperform. AMR advanced 7/16 to 57 5/16.
Merrill Lynch
reinstated
Broadwing
(BRW)
with a near-term accumulate, long-term buy and a 12- to 18-month price target of 50. Broadwing stumbled lost 1 9/16 to 37 3/8.
PaineWebber
raised its 12-month price target on
Calpine
(CPN)
to 150 a share. Calpine fell 6, or 5.4%, to 105.
Credit Suisse First Boston
cut its rating on
Chiron
(CHIR) - Get Report
to buy from strong buy. Chiron plummeted 14 3/16, or 23.6%, to 45 3/4.
Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette
added
Compaq
(CPQ)
to its value list. Compaq edged up 1/8 to 28 11/16.
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
started coverage of
Diversa
(DVSA)
with a buy rating and a 157 price target. Diversa tumbled 9 7/8, or 9.7%, to 91.
Thomas Weisel
analyst Doug van Dorsten started coverage of
Eloquent
(ELOQ)
with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of 60. Eloquent slipped 2 7/8, or 7.2%, to 36 5/8.
Warburg Dillon Read analyst Claire Nickson-Havens raised her rating on
eSpeed
(ESPD)
to strong buy from buy and boosted the price target to 100 from 80. eSpeed popped 8 1/8, or 10.8%, to 82 7/8.
J.P. Morgan
set a 12-month price target for
FleetBoston Financial
(FBF)
at 38. FleetBoston Financial added 7/16 to 26 1/8.
Robertson Stephens
upgraded
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
to strong buy from buy. Intel bounced 1 15/16 to 122 1/8.
Jefferies
said it started coverage of
Juno Online
(JWEB)
with a buy rating and a 12-month price target of 40. Juno Online hopped 3 1/8, or 15.7%, to 23.
Alex. Brown upgraded
Knight/Trimark
(NITE)
to strong buy from buy. Knight/Trimark climbed 2 1/2, or 5%, to 52 1/16.
DLJ said it raised
Kohl's
(KSS) - Get Report
to buy from market performer. Kohl's advanced 1 9/16 to 84 11/16.
SG Cowen
said it started coverage of
Landacorp
(LCOR)
as a strong buy. Landacorp tacked on 2 1/8, or 15%, to 16 1/14.
Merrill Lynch said analyst Michael Hughes started coverage of
Lending Tree
(TREE) - Get Report
with a near- and long-term buy rating and a 12- to 18-month price target of 33. Lending Tree gained 13/16, or 5.7%, to 14 7/8.
Wit SoundView
upped its rating on
Lucent
(LU)
to buy from hold and set a price target of 90. Lucent skidded 1 3/4 to 66 1/4.
Thomas Weisel analyst Keith Gay initiated coverage on
VarsityBooks.com
(VSTY)
with a buy rating. VarsityBooks.com declined 7/16 to 9 3/8.
Salomon Smith Barney
downgraded
StarMedia Network
(STRM) - Get Report
to neutral from buy. StarMedia Networks plummeted 17 1/4, or 34.5%, to 32 3/4.
PaineWebber
sliced its rating on
Suiza Foods
(SZA)
to attractive from buy and cut its price target to 42 from 51. Suiza Foods tumbled 1 3/8 to 37 5/16.
Merrill Lynch analyst Robert Schenosky started coverage of
Weirton Steel
(WS)
with a rating of accumulate for the intermediate term and buy for the long term. Weirton Steel declined 1/8 to 9 1/2.
Miscellany
Aetna
(AET)
slipped 5 1/4, or 9.3%, to 50 3/4 after it said it planned to separate its finance and health care businesses "as soon as an orderly separation can be achieved." The company also plans to sell off international assets that do not fit the strategy of either resulting company. Meanwhile,
Warburg Dillon Read
cut its rating on Aetna to reduce from hold.
Excite@Home
(ATHM) - Get Report
hopped 1 5/16 to 29 7/8 after it said it will launch an online service aimed at high-speed users.
JC Penney
(JCP) - Get Report
gained 1/16 to 14 after it said that the head of its
Eckerd
division, Frank Newman, has departed to become the CEO of online drugstore
more.com
. Last year, JC Penney agreed to spin off 20% of its Eckerd unit as a tracking stock. The offering will take place in the fist half of 2000.
The Heard on the Street column in the
Journal
says biotech stocks are acting like Internet stocks, driving the biotech industry's market capitalization up 50% to $600 billion in just two months time. The story speculates that some biotech companies now have the capacity to swallow up old-line pharmaceuticals companies, though it adds no imminent deals are on the horizon.
