Wall Street Beat: Intuit, 3Com raise M&A issues
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Intuit's move to acquire financial services vendor Digital InsightÂ this week, Â and 3Com Corp.'s deal to buy out Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd's stake in their joint venture are signs that mergers and acquisitions activity continues unabated. The question is what this means for technology generally.
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Wall Street plays the overreacting game; Walgreen and CVS suffer.
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NEW YORK -- Wall Street fell sharply for a third straight session Thursday after rising bond yields stoked concerns that an interest rate cut later in the year is less likely. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 100 points and the S&P 500 index hovered near the 1,500 mark.
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The business intelligence software company joins the M&A spree.
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Wall Street stocks were expected to open  mixed on Friday, with technology stocks gaining ground led by  PeopleSoft Inc PSFT.O but blue chips held back by a profit  warning from Alcoa Inc. AA.N.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS.N and   Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. LEH.N suffered the biggest   declines in equities underwriting and announced mergers and   acquisitions activity during the fiscal third quarter,   according to Dealogic data.
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Lukewarm third-quarter earnings reports to date imply that corporate America has some thorny problems. For the stock market to get back on track, this week's releases will have to offer Wall Street some more upbeat news.
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U.S. blue chip stocks edged lower on  Monday as regulatory concerns at insurer American International  Group Inc. AIG.N overshadowed Verizon Communications Inc.'s  VZ.N move to buy MCI Communications Inc. MCIP.O in a deal  worth $6.75 billion.
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TORONTO (CP) - Early indicators were mixed for North American stock markets Monday as investors weighed the impact of an expected US interest rate hike and a $10.3-billion-US merger in the technology sector.
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Wall Street since midsummer has  weathered three hurricanes, a heightened insurgency in Iraq, a  mud-slinging presidential campaign, a soft patch in the  economy, two Fed rate hikes and a tense period of attack alerts  surrounding the national political conventions.
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Morgan Stanley  and Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. , two of Wall Street's biggest securities firms, on Tuesday said their fourth-quarter profits rose as a flurry of mergers and a year-end stock rally boosted investment banking fees.
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In the last full trading week of the year, the NetSuite IPO, acquisition news and earnings reports from Oracle, Palm and RIM highlighted technology sector gains, but also concerns for 2008.Oracle on Wednesday reported net income of $1.3 billion for the quarter ending Nov. 30, up 35 percent from a year earlier. The report validated its acquisition strategy at the end of what is bound to be a record year for M&amp;A in the tech sector.&#160;Oracle&#39;s results&#160;show it is leveraging homegrown as well as acquired products, cross-selling a broad variety of business applications. Company shares closed Thursday at $22.10, up by $1.34.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission&#39;s approval on Thursday of&#160;Google&#39;s acquisition of online ad-server DoubleClick&#160;helped boost Google shares by $12.32, to close at $689.69, even though the deal requires other government body approvals.Through November 2007, tech M&amp;A amounted to about $449 billion, close to the total for 2006, according to a report released this week by the 451 Group. With a strong December for M&amp;A, 2007 &quot;could be the first year in tech M&amp;A history to top a half-trillion dollars&#39; worth of transactions,&quot; according to the report.There are a variety of reasons for the banner M&amp;A year, but underlying them all were strong vendor earnings. But next year will likely see a slowdown in deals.The U.S. housing slump and resulting turmoil in financial markets has raised fears of an overall slowdown in the economy. This could affect consumer and business buying plans as well as the financial results of tech vendors.&quot;There&#39;s a sense of muted expectation,&quot; according to the 451 Group&#39;s Brenan Daly. &quot;Corporate buying activity reflects to some degree consumer activity. If you are flush with cash and expecting good things from the economy, chances are you&#39;re more willing to go out buying.&quot;Meanwhile, the&#160;IPO of software-as-a-service vendor NetSuite&#160;on Thursday reflected a year for public offerings that was ultimately stronger than expected. Company shares closed at $35.50 after opening at $26.00. IPOs this year underscored confidence in sectors such as SaaS and storage, noted the 451 Group report. In the SaaS arena, SuccessFactors and DemandTec had strong IPOs. In the storage sector, Data Domain and 3Par had solid IPOs, 451 noted.But the same factors that are likely to contribute to a slowdown in M&amp;A will also probably cause a slump in IPO activity in 2008.Most IT market researchers are forecasting a slowdown for at least the first half of next year. Growth in U.S. IT investment, for example, will drop to 4.8 percent in 2008 from 5.3 percent in 2007, according to Forrester Research.In a year of tepid sales, only the best-run companies are expected to have the full confidence of investors. This week&#39;s earnings reports from Palm and RIM are a case in point. Palm shares dropped to their lowest point in four years on Wednesday, closing at $5.52, after the company reported a quarterly loss of $9.6 million for the quarter ending Nov. 30. Last year the company earned $12.8 million for the period. Palm stock has dropped about 50 percent in the past two months.Reporting Thursday on the same quarter, RIM said BlackBerry sales boosted earnings to $370.5 million, compared to $175.2 million last year. Shares jumped by about $10 in after-hours trading, about an hour after the announcement.Handset markets are booming, but vendors face some of the same pressures as PC makers: Competition has lowered margins. Vendors need to get it all right: good products, good management, and well-managed logistics.&quot;We view RIM as extremely well-positioned due to carrier partnership strategy, talented management and technology,&quot; said Citi Investment Research in a market commentary. On the other hand, Citi fretted that &quot;we are increasingly concerned with Palm&#39;s internal controls.&quot;Especially in the most competitive sectors -- such as PCs, handheld devices, telecom and Internet-based businesses -- 2008 will leave much less room for error than 2007, which, despite economic turmoil, turned out to be a strong year for tech earnings overall.&#160;
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A slew of third-quarter earnings reports dominated technology and telecommunications stocks last week. Much of the news was positive, with key players posting impressive earnings growth, but the December quarter outlook remained unclear for some.
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U.S. stocks rose Monday on strong Merck & Co. profits and news of a nearly $18 billion oil services takeover, while Treasury bonds eased as reduced fears about the subprime credit market made riskier assets attractive again.
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With M&A fever hitting new highs, we ponder which deals will work out.
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NEW YORK - As Wall Street sifts through more than 300 third-quarter earnings reports this week, technology and pharmaceutical stocks will be getting some of the closest scrutiny.    The focus on drug companies results from a recent spate of bad news about Merck & Co...
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NEW YORK  -Stocks rose in erratic trade on Wednesday, led by financials, as investors looked for bargains in the beaten-down sector after results from JPMorgan Chase & Co , the No. 3 U.S. bank.