By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A big executive shake-up at
online social-gaming company Zynga Inc., and gains from Apple Inc.
and Brocade Communications Systems Inc., claimed the attention of
tech investors Wednesday.
Zynga (ZNGA) edged up 4 cents a share, or 1.4%, to $2.95, after
Chief Executive Don Mattrick said David Ko, the company's chief
operating officer, had resigned. Mattrick said in a memo to Zynga's
employees that Chief Technology Officer Cadir Lee and Chief People
Officer Colleen McCreary are also leaving the troubled gaming
company.
It was the latest in a string of management shake-ups at Zynga
over the past year, but the first for Mattrick, who became CEO in
July after running the division at Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
responsible for the Xbox videogame console and other gaming
products.
Apple (AAPL) was up by 1.3%, at $495.88, after gaining almost 5%
on Tuesday. Those gains were spurred on by activist investor Carl
Icahn after he tweeted he had taken a "large position" in Apple,
and that he believes the company should expand its stock buyback
plan.
Brocade (BRCD) shares climbed more than 14%, to $7.82, after the
networking-technology company reported a surge in its third-quarter
results late Tuesday. Brocade said it earned $118.7 million, or 26
cents a share, on revenue of $536.6 million.
Excluding one-time items, Brocade said it would have earned 19
cents a share, while Wall Street analysts had forecast the company
to earn 12 cents a share on $519 million in sales.
Other gains came from Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Facebook Inc. (FB)
and Oracle Corp. (ORCL).
But enough decliners emerged to drag the tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite Index (RIXF) down by 15 points to 3,669 and the
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up 1.7%.
Cree Inc. (CREE) put in one of the tech sector's largest
percentage declines, falling more than 20% to $60.36. On Tuesday,
the LED lighting technology products company gave a
weaker-than-expected forecast for its fiscal first quarter, saying
it expects to earn 36 cents to 41 cents a share on revenue between
$380 million and $400 million. Analysts had forecast Cree to earn
43 cents a share on $398.4 million in sales for the quarter.
Sector leaders also in the red included Google Inc. (GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), IBM Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT),
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Pandora Media Inc. (P).
(ORCL)
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