The Night Watch: Ariba Posts Earnings, After-Hours Investors Say 'Buy!'

Ariba (ARBA) arrived with arresting third-quarter results, mocking consensus estimates with roaring revenues.

The B2B software provider took

Yahoo!'s

(YHOO)

place at the top of

Island's

most traded list, serving up the same kind of steamy gains that investors eat up. Ariba shares ran up 12 3/16 to 115 11/16 after reporting revenue of $80.7 million, not the $47 million to $49 million expected. The loss was 5 cents per share, 3 cents better than expected.

TheStreet.com

covered the story in an earlier

article.

Stunning sales fueled a 578% revenue growth from the same period last year, but the results may not have been too much of a shock as the company ended daytime trading up 12 3/8, or 13.6%, to 103 1/2 in anticipation of the postclose release. B2B investors are crossing their fingers that Ariba's gains will do for their sector what Yahoo!'s did for Internet stocks

today. While Ariba's earnings have gained it the top spot for tonight's action, it should still be noted that Yahoo!'s earnings on Tuesday night generated a lot more interest.

B2B company

VerticalNet

(VERT)

was pulled 2 17/64 higher to 48 61/64 on the Ariba momentum.

Wireless company,

Motorola

(MOT)

met Wall Street expectations and settled 3/4 higher at 36 3/16 on

Instinet

. Motorola said it earned $515 million, or 23 cents per share in the second quarter. Profits doubled on the year due to strong sales in its broadband communications and network systems segments that totaled 9.3 billion.

Commerce One

(CMRC)

extended its 22% day gains into the night. The rally was based on

Microsoft's

(MSFT) - Get Report

rumored acquisition of a stake in the company. Two alliances also fired the gains.

First, an agreement with Japan's

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone's

(NTT)

NTT Communications division to launch an online procurement marketplace for Japanese buyers and sellers. Second, an agreement with

Convergent Communications

(CONV)

to offer e-commerce products to small- and medium-sized businesses. Commerce One was No. 2 on Island, posting a 4 11/16 gain to 56 1/2.

B2B e-commerce company

Ventro

(VNTR) - Get Report

also cooked up some deals this morning that sent its stock 16% higher. Its alliance with

TradeCard

, an online trade transaction network, will create a marketplace to settle international trade transactions.

One of Ventro's specialty medical companies also announced two deals. Promedix, a provider of B2B services to health care purchasers, signed a three-year deal with Sutter Health, a non-profit healthcare network that serves three million people in Northern California. It also closed a three-year deal with the

University of Chicago's

hospitals to aid the procurement of specialty medical products. It was up 2 1/16 to 22 1/2 on 100,000 Island shares.

Would you loan money to a company named

Zany Brainy

(ZANY)

? The madcap Pennsylvania-based retailer of specialty toys, games, books and multimedia products for kids is snapping up companies with even sillier names.

Today, the typically conservative bankers of

First Union National

extended a $65 million-dollar loan to the kooky company prior to the closing of the

Noodle Kidoodle

acquisition and will increase it to $115 million after the close of the deal.

The company spiked on the news, which was released in the last half-hour of trading. The 1/2 point, or 18%, surge turned into evening profit-taking as shares fell 95/256 to 2 7/8 on 84,000 shares.

Applied Micro Circuits

(AMCC)

reported first-quarter earnings of 21 cents a share and shot up 4 1/16 to 129 1/2.

Networking company

Redback Networks

(RBAK)

was also riding the happy earnings train, though it reported negative earnings. But, hey, it wasn't as negative as people thought, so... let's rally! The maker of communications equipment rose 4 3/8 to 160 7/8 on a second-quarter net loss of 5 cents a share. Also, net revenue of $48.7 million grew 340% over last year and 43% over last quarter.

A bit of rational exuberance lifted

Rational Software

(RATL)

6 1/8 to 97 1/2 on 28,000 Island shares. The software company's first-quarter earnings beat the Street's 22-cent estimate with earnings of $26.9 million, or 27 cents a share, on sales of $170.3 million. This is the second consecutive quarter that Rational has surprised analysts. It also announced a 2-for-1 stock split.

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Island ECN, owned by Datek Online, offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT.

Confused?

TheStreet.com

explains how the rules change when the sun goes down in Investing Basics: Night Owl, a section devoted to after-hours trading.

As originally published, this story contained an error. Please see

Corrections and Clarifications.