By Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Strong gains by Dell Inc. led the
tech sector higher on Monday morning as new bidders emerged for the
PC maker, while BlackBerry shares slipped on growing worries about
sales of its new Z10 smartphone.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose by 0.6% to 3,263 while
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose by 0.7% and the
Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index (MSH) rose by 0.3%.
Dell (DELL) shares jumped more than 3% to $14.61 after the
company's board of directors confirmed previous reports that
Blackstone Group (BX) and investor activist Carl Icahn were leading
two separate efforts to launch bids for the company to compete with
a privatization deal offered by founder Michael Dell and Silver
Lake.
Icahn's group is offering to buy $2 billion worth of the
company's shares for $15 a share. Shareholders could elect to take
shares of the new company or cash. The deal is being supported by
major Dell shareholders Southeastern Asset Management and T.Rowe
Price. Blackstone's deal is worth $14.25 per share.
BlackBerry (RIMM) shares fell more than 3% to $14.42 after
Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski downgraded the stock to a neutral
rating, citing a "disappointing" launch of the company's Z10
handset at AT&T (T) and Best Buy (BBY) on Friday "with limited
marketing and tepid sell-through" for the U.S. debut of the
device.
"We now assign a 20% probability of success for BB10, down from
30% previously, as the disappointing launch of the Z10 at AT&T
reduces our confidence that sell-through of the BB10 will be
successful in the important U.S. market," the analyst wrote,
referring to the company's new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
Yahoo (YHOO) shares rose by 2% after the company acquired
Summly, a mobile news reader app for an undisclosed sum.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose by 1.5% to $469.37. The company
acquired WifiSLAM, a maker of indoor GPS technology, for about $20
million, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal over the
weekend.
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