By Rex Crum, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Amazon.com Inc. claimed the
attention of much of the tech sector Wednesday, as the company took
what may be its biggest step yet into the consumer-electronics
market with the unveiling of its Fire Phone smartphone.
Amazon (AMZN) shares rose 2.7% to close at $334.38 after company
Chief Executive Jeff Bezos showed off the Fire Phone at an event in
Seattle. The Fire Phone comes with a 3-D technology called "Dynamic
Perspective" and some of the features of Amazon's Fire TV set-top
box and Kindle tablet devices.
AT&T will be the exclusive carrier of the Fire Phone, which
will cost either $199.99 or $299.99 with a two-year service
contract. The device will begin shipping on July 25.
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) had a strong day, with its shares
rising more than 8% to close at $73.08 a share after the software
company reported strong second-quarter earnings and revenue growth.
Adobe's results were led by growing cloud-based software
subscriptions. Adobe said it earned 37 cents a share, excluding
one-time items, on $1.07 billion in sales. Analysts surveyed by
FactSet had forecast Adobe to earn 30 cents a share on revenue of
$1.03 billion.
Adobe said it added 464,000 Creative Cloud subscribers in the
quarter, to give it 2.3 million such subscribers.
Oracle Corp. (ORCL) shares rose 1.2% to close at $42.81 a day
after reports surfaced saying the company was close to a deal to
acquire hotel and restaurant software developers Micros Systems
Inc. (MCRS) for more than $5 billion.
Gains also came from LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), Pandora Media Inc.
(P), Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) and Facebook Inc. (FB).
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) closed with a gain of 25
points at 4,362, but the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX)
also dipped into the red.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
Amazon takes wraps off Fire Phone at last
Live blog recap of Amazon's phone event
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