By Rex Crum
Tech stocks began to show some signs of life Wednesday as the
sector found itself in a fight to snare gains after starting June
on a disappointing tone in the previous day's session.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF), home to many leading tech
stocks, wavered in early trading before rising 20 points to 2,241.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 1.5% and the Morgan
Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was up almost 1%.
Among leading tech stocks, hard-disk drive maker Seagate
Technology (STX), which rose 48 cents a share, or 3.3%, to $14.96,
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ),up $1.10, or 2.4%, to $46.69, Apple Inc.
(AAPL), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Intel Corp. (INTC).
AT&T Inc. (T) rose 15 cents a share to $24.47 after the
telecom giant said it would end its unlimited wireless-data plans
and move toward a tiered billing structure.
DivX Inc. (DIVX) shares climbed $1.69, or 24%, to $8.64 after
Sonic Solutions Inc. (SNIC) said it would acquire the digital media
company for $323 million. The deal values DivX at $9.83 a share, a
41% premium over its Tuesday closing price.
Separately, Sonic released preliminary fourth-quarter earnings
results. The company said it earned $1.2 million, or 4 cents a
share, on $26.4 million, compared with earnings of $328,000, or a
penny a share, on $32.2 million in sales a year ago.
Sonic's shares fell $1.44, or more than 12%, to $10.39.