By Rex Crum
Tech stocks declined Monday with action highlighted by
Hewlett-Packard Co. announcing a $10 billion stock buyback and
holding the edge in the battle for 3Par Inc., and Intel Corp.
moving to improve its position in the wireless chip market.
Before the market opened, H-P (HPQ) said it has approved a plan
to buy back $10 billion of its company stock. The company still has
$4.9 billion in repurchase authorizations remaining under an $8
billion buyback plan the H-P board approved in 2009.
H-P also appeared to have the inside track in the fight with
Dell Inc. (DELL) to acquire 3Par (PAR). Over the weekend, 3Par said
it intended to accept H-P's $30-a-share offer, which values the
data-storage company at about $2 billion. Dell, which originally
reached a deal to acquire 3Par for $18 a share before H-P started a
bidding war for the company, has yet to respond to H-P's latest
offer, or 3Par's plans.
H-P shares rose 56 cents to $38.56, making the company the only
advancer of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJI). Dell rose 13 cents a share at $12.02. 3Par shares shed 64
cents to close at $31.82.
Intel (INTC) opened up its checkbook again, agreeing to pay $1.4
billion for the wireless-chip business of German semiconductor
company Infineon Technologies AG (IFNNY). The Infineon business
makes chips used in mobile phones and laptop PCs.
It's the second major acquisition for Intel in two weeks.
Earlier this month, Intel agreed to acquire security software
company McAfee Inc. (MFE) for $7.7 billion.
Intel shares gave up 41 cents, or 2.2%, to close at $17.96
Cogent Inc. (COGT) shares climbed $2.18, or more than 24%, to
$11.09 after 3M Co. (MMM) said it would acquire the
biometric-technology company for $943 million. 3M plans on using
Cogent's technology to expand its business with law-enforcement and
border-security agencies.
The recent wave of tech acquisitions has led to much speculation
over what areas and companies appear to be attractive targets for
some of the tech leaders with huge cash reserves.
However, more concerns about the state of the U.S. economy
dampened most investors' enthusiasm for the market, as many were
already looking ahead to the week's unemployment report, due out on
Friday.
Declines came from Oracle Corp. (ORCL), IBM Corp. (IBM)
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Google Inc. (GOOG) and Research In Motion
Ltd. (RIMM).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell almost 34 points to
2,119, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up
2.5% and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) shed 1.5%.