Stocks to Watch: CKFR, BAC, AWE, T, ICGE, AMZN, BTI, NOK, CSCO
Online bill-payment provider CheckFree Holdings (CKFR) jumped 12 7/16, or 31.4%, to 52 after it said it will buy Bank of America's (BAC) - Get Bank of America Corp Report electronic billing and payment assets through a strategic agreement that will give the bank a 16% stake in CheckFree. Under the terms of the deal, Bank of America will get 10 million restricted CheckFree shares and 10 million performance-based warrants for common stock. Bank of America staggered 1 1/2 to 50 1/4.
For more on this
story, see coverage from
TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com
joint newsroom.
Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
Six world airlines announced plans to form a new company to create and operate a B2B marketplace linking carriers worldwide with sellers of goods and services. The portal will handle some $32 billion a year in purchases or sales of items like fuel and fuel services. The six founding airlines are
Air France
AMR
(AMR)
unit American Airlines,
British Airways
(BAB) - Get Invesco Taxable Municipal Bond ETF Report
,
Continental
(CAL) - Get Caleres, Inc. Report
,
TheStreet Recommends
Delta Air Lines
(DAL) - Get Delta Air Lines, Inc. Report
and
UAL
(UAL) - Get United Airlines Holdings, Inc. Report
unit United Airlines.
General Electric
(GE) - Get General Electric Company Report
unit GE Capital Aviation said it ordered 26 aircraft from Europe's
Airbus Industrie
in a transaction valued at more than $2.3 billion.
IBM
(IBM) - Get International Business Machines Corporation Report
and
S1
(SONE)
, an Internet-based software provider, said they struck a deal that would supply technology to help financial institutions offer Internet-based corporate banking.
Inktomi
(INKT)
and
Vignette
(VIGN)
announced an alliance to integrate their e-commerce products.
Internet Capital
(ICGE)
said it acquired a stake in
Emptoris
for $20 million in cash.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report
and
Xerox
(XRX) - Get Xerox Holdings Corporation Report
said they will form a company to deliver equipment protecting Web-published products. Microsoft said it will take a stake in Xerox's e-commerce spinoff.
For additional coverage of this
story, see coverage from
TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com
joint newsroom.
Earnings/revenue reports and previews
(
Earnings estimates from First Call/Thomson Financial; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified.
)
Wireless service provider
Aether Systems
(AETH)
posted a loss of $1.13 a share, in line with the five-analyst estimate but below the year-ago loss of 7 cents. Additionally, Aether reported a 16-fold increase in first-quarter revenue to $5.4 million.
E-tailing behemoth
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report
posted a first-quarter loss of 35 cents a share, a penny narrower than the 26-analyst estimate, but wider than the year-ago loss of 12 cents a share. The company said it nearly doubled revenues and added more than 3 million new customers.
CFO Warren Jensen said Amazon should see strong growth in the second quarter, driven by a profitable U.S. book, music and video operation and rapid expansion in European markets.
For more on Amazon's
earnings, see coverage from
TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com's
joint newsroom.
British American Tobacco
(BTI) - Get British American Tobacco plc Report
said its pretax profits fell a worse-than-expected 29% in the first quarter. Operating profit was 52% higher in the quarter, but pretax profits were hit by goodwill amortization and exceptional charges, mostly due to a restructuring and an acquisition.
Nokia
, said pretax profit jumped a higher-than expected 76% in the first quarter, adding that sales could rise by more than 30% to 40% in 2000.
TheStreet.com
(TSCM)
, publisher of this Web site, posted a first-quarter loss of 51 cents a share, narrower than the seven-analyst expected loss of 54 cents. The year-ago loss was 42 cents.
Analyst actions
Upgrades
Upgrades
Beyond.com
(BYND) - Get Beyond Meat, Inc. Report
: 2000 EPS view narrowed to a loss of $1.51 from $1.69 at
Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette
. Revenue estimate raised to $133.7 million from $119.1 million.
Cambrex
(CBM) - Get Cambrex Corporation Report
: UP to buy from outperform at
Lehman Brothers
, price target: 58 from 44.
Delta Air Lines
(DAL) - Get Delta Air Lines, Inc. Report
: UP to strong buy from buy at
Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
.
Semiconductor company
Kopin
(KOPN) - Get Kopin Corporation Report
: 2000 EPS UP to 54 cents from 47 cents and 2001 EPS UP to $1 from 87 cents at
Credit Suisse First Boston
.
Virata
(VRTA)
: price target UP to 130 from 105 at
Warburg Dillon Read
.
StarTek
(SRT) - Get Startek, Inc. Report
: UP to strong buy from hold at Credit Suisse First Boston, price target: $78. ACTIVE="YES"/>
Wireless Facilities
(WFII)
: earnings and revenue estimates for 2000 and 2001 UP at Credit Suisse First Boston.
Downgrades
AMR
(AMR)
: DOWN to buy from strong buy at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown.
Intertrust Technologies
(ITRU)
: 2001 EPS view made wider at CSFB.
Kerr-McGee
(KMG)
: DOWN to buy from strong buy at Alex. Brown.
Reader's Digest
(RDA)
: DOWN to buy from strong buy at
SG Cowen
.
Initiations
Fox Entertainment
(FOX) - Get Fox Corporation Class B Report
: NEW buy at
Chase H&Q
, price target: 35.
AT&T Wireless Group
(AWE)
was lately up 2 5/16, or 7.8%, to 31 13/16 after it priced its historic initial public offering at $29.50 a share, raking in a hefty $10.62 billion for its parent,
AT&T
, and ranking as the largest U.S. new issue in history. AT&T worked with underwriters
Goldman Sachs
,
Merrill Lynch
and
Salomon Smith Barney
on the deal.
For more on this
story, see coverage from
TheStreet.com/NYTimes.com
joint newsroom.
Networking giant
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Cisco Systems, Inc. Report
is involved in a dispute with two former customers who accuse the company's salesmen of extortion, conflicts of interest and making death threats, according to
The Wall Street Journal
. The claims arose in a legal skirmish between Cisco and two small technology companies, one in Florida and the other in Louisiana.
The Heard on the Street column in the
Journal
says a recent ruling by a California federal court, which threw out most of a
Securities and Exchange Commission
case against a software engineer, comes as a blow to the commission's efforts to step up investigations of insider trading at high-tech companies.
