By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oracle Corp.'s new partnerships
with Microsoft Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc., and gains from
Pandora Media Inc., stood out among tech stocks Tuesday as much of
the sector managed to come back from the prior day's losses.
Oracle (ORCL) shed 18 cents a share to trade at $29.99 after the
company unveiled a new partnership with Salesforce (CRM) in which
the companies will work together to improve their capabilities in
cloud computing under a nine-year deal.
The deal with Salesforce came after Oracle said late Monday it
reached a new partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) that will let
Oracle's software run on Microsoft's enterprise platforms,
including the Windows Azure cloud infrastructure.
Salesforce shares rose 1.4%, to $37.46, but Microsoft was off by
14 cents a share at $33.59.
Microsoft was also getting attention a day ahead of its Build
conference, in which the software giant will give developers more
of a look at the Windows 8.1 operating system upgrade, which has
been code-named Windows Blue.
Pandora's (P) shares rose more than 7% to $16.22 after the
online radio company said its service is now available in more than
100 automobile models and now has more 2.5 million listeners using
its service in cars. The number of car models offering Pandora has
doubled from the same period a year ago.
Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) was up by 3.3%, at $24.55 as the company held
its annual shareholders meeting. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer used
the meeting to tout Yahoo's gains in its mobile business due to
revamp apps for email and sharing photos.
Advances also came from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Seagate
Technology (STX), Intel Corp. (INTC) and eBay Inc. (EBAY).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose almost 22 points to
3,342, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was up almost
2%.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) was off by $1.93 a share at $400.53. Before
the market opened, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron cut
his price target on Apple's stock to $460 a share from $480 and
lowered his iPhone sales estimates from the June quarter by 1
million units.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) shares were down almost 2% at $211.71 after
Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner cut his rating on Netflix
to underperform from market perform, but raised his price target on
the stock to $180 a share from $125. In a research note, Kirjner
said Netflix's current stock price reflects "unrealistic"
expectations across its business areas.
Demand Media Inc. (DMD) shares fell almost 21% to $6.47 after
the website operator cut its second-quarter revenue forecast due to
a reduction in referral traffic from search engines such as Google.
Analysts as JMP Securities and Stifel Nicolaus also cut their
ratings on Demand Media's stock.
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