By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The tech sector ended the week
with mixed results Friday, as big losses from social-gaming company
Zynga Inc. and online-travel site Expedia Inc. weighed, but mild
gains also emerged from bellwethers such as Microsoft Corp. and
Apple Inc.
Zynga (ZNGA) shares closed with a loss of 14%, at $3.01 after
the company reported a decline in its second-quarter sales and
forecast weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter.
New Chief Executive Don Mattrick, who was hired away from
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) just three weeks ago, said Zynga was backing
away from plans to push into "real money gaming" in the U.S. and
would focus on free, social games. Mattrick added that he
anticipates "two to four quarters of volatility" as Zynga sorts out
its various issues and strategies.
Read: Zynga's crisis to test CEO Mattrick's mettle.
Expedia (EXPE) was bruised even more than Zynga, as the
online-travel company's shares plunged by more than 27% to
$47.20.
Late Thursday, Expedia reported second-quarter results that
missed analysts' expectations, as earnings fell from the same
period a year ago. Expedia said its results were hampered by a 33%
rise in its sales and marketing costs, as well as strong
competition by rivals.
Led by Expedia, other online travel sites also retreated, with
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (OWW) down by almost 4% and Priceline.com
Inc. (PCLN) shares giving up 1.3%, to close at $900.08 a share.
Other notable decliners included Netgear Inc. (NTGR), which fell
9% to $30 after the networking-equipment company on Thursday gave a
third-quarter outlook that missed analysts' forecasts. Analysts at
RBC Capital Markets cut Netgear's rating to underperform, or sell,
from sector perform.
Outerwall Inc. (OUTR), which recently changed its named from
Coinstar, fell by more than 13%, to $56.69 after the operator of
Redbox DVD rental kiosks gave a second-quarter report that missed
Wall Street's estimates and cut its outlook for its entire fiscal
year.
Losses also came from tech bellwethers Hewlett-Packard Co.
(HPQ), Netflix Inc. (NFLX), IBM Corp. (IBM), Netflix Inc. (NFLX),
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Google Inc. (GOOG).
Gainers included Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), which rose
more than 15%, to $17.46. French conglomorate Vivendi said Friday
it would sell most of its controlling stake in videogame publisher
back to Activision for $5.83 billion. Vivendi will also sell
another stake in Activision to a group that includes the company's
chief executive, Bobby Kotick, and co-chairman Brian Kelly, for
$2.34 billion.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) had a good day, rising 3%, to a new
all-time high close of $312.01 a share a day after reporting mixed
quarterly results late Thursday.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares rose 23 cents to close at $31.62.
Hedge-fund manager David Einhorn, of Greenlight Capital, said in
quarterly note to investors that hid fund had closed out its
investments in Microsoft.
Apple Inc. (AAPL), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Facebook Inc. (FB) and
eBay Inc. (EBAY) also advanced.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) ended the day up by 8 points
at 3,613, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up
almost 1%.
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