Monday's Winners and Losers: Overstock.com

The online retailer falls 21.4% after it says gross margins would be lower than in recent quarters.

Author:: TSC Staff
Publish date:: Dec 10, 2007 4:33 PM EST

Among the big individual winners was

MBIA

, which leapt 11.3% to $33.39 after the financial guarantor said that private-equity firm Warburg Pincus had agreed to

inject it with up to $1 billion in cash. Warburg will fulfill half of that maximum sum by purchasing 16.1 million MBIA shares at a 3% premium (as of MBIA's Friday closing price) of $31 apiece.

As for the rest of the amount, Warburg will support an expected first-quarter MBIA shareholder-rights offering of up to $500 million. In connection with that, Warburg will get warrants to buy 8.7 million MBIA shares at $40 apiece and B warrants exercisable for 7.4 million shares at that same price.

Shares of Hamilton, Bermuda-based

Security Capital Assurance

(SCA) - Get Report

also rose on news. Shares rose 18.8% to $8.15.

Among other peers getting a boost on the news,

Ambac

(ABK)

and

Radian

(RDN) - Get Report

shot up 8.7% and 11.6%, respectively.

In the buyout arena,

Adams Respiratory Therapeutics

(ARXT)

added $15.43, or 35%, to $59.11, after announcing that it

agreed to be acquired by British company Reckitt Benckiser Group for $2.3 billion, or $60 a share, a 37.3% premium to the stock's Friday closing price.

Also, Japanese drugmaker Esai said it

would buy

MGI Pharma

(MOGN)

for $3.9 billion in cash, or $41 a share, to build on its cancer-drug business. The price is a 23% premium to MGI's Friday closing price of $33.45. MGI rose $6.47, or 19.3%, to $39.92.

Shares of video-game publisher

Take-Two Interactive

(TTWO) - Get Report

rose 5.7% after an analyst from Pacific Crest Securities upgraded the stock to outperform from sector perform.

The latest upgrade is the second this month as analysts bet that the upcoming release of the latest game in the company's biggest franchise,

Grand Theft Auto

, could goose revenue. Take-Two has also been the subject of buyout speculation as the video game industry consolidates. The stock was up 97 cents to $18.00.

Overstock.com

(OSTK) - Get Report

fell 21.4% after CEO Patrick Byrne said the company's gross margins would be lower than in recent quarters due to aggressive sales promotions and discounting.

According to Byrne, fourth-quarter net income is expected to range between -1% and 1% of revenue, with the company generating about $50 to $60 million in operating cash flow.

But Byrne said gross bookings this quarter have increased by approximately 10% over last year's fourth quarter due to an increase in the order size of the average transaction. Overstock.com was off $5.10 to $18.74.

Roaring ahead,

Nuvelo

(NUVO)

shares jumped 21% to $2.57 after the San Carlos, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company announced results from a phase III SONOMA-2 (Speedy Opening of Non-functional and Occluded Catheters with Mini-dose Alfimeprase-2) trial. The results indicate that alfimeprase restored catheter function and was well-tolerated by patients.