By Rex Crum
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks started the week on
an upbeat note Monday, with Isilon Systems Inc. shares leading the
gains after EMC Corp. said it would buy the data-storage-technology
company in a deal worth $2.25 billion.
Isilon (ISLN) shares climbed $7.52 to $33.80 after EMC (EMC)
said it would buy the company for $33.85 a share. Isilon
specializes in "scale-out NAS," or network-attached storage, used
by corporations to store and manage data.
EMC shares were down 12 cents at $21.59 following the deal's
announcement.
Data-storage companies have been seen as prime acquisition
territory since Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Dell Inc. (DELL)
engaged in a bidding war for 3Par Inc. that ended with H-P
acquiring 3Par in September for $2.4 billion.
Among other data-storage companies that have been seen as
possible acquisition targets, Compellent Technologies Inc. (CML)
shares climbed $1.43, or more than 6%, to $24.68 and CommVault
Systems Inc. (CVLT) tacked on 47 cents to $29.59. STEC Inc. (STEC),
which counts on EMC for a large portion of its business, rose 34
cents a share, or 2%, to $16.49.
Other gains came from H-P, Dell, NetApp Inc. (NTAP), IBM Corp.
(IBM), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) and Motorola Inc.
(MOT).
Apple Inc. (AAPL) rose $1.30 to $309.33. Apple hinted at a new
offering on Tuesday for iTunes with a message on its home page, and
on the iTunes store, that said "Tomorrow is just another day. That
you will never forget," and to check back Tuesday at 10 a.m.
Eastern for more information.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) showed it might be in for a
rough day, at first rising more than 13 points, and then falling
into the red before climbing up 4 points to 2,522.
Decliners included Akamai Networks Inc. (AKAM) and Limelight
Networks Inc. (LLNW) after Oppenheimer analyst Srinivas Anantha cut
his rating on Akamai to perform, or the equivalent of neutral, from
outperform, and lowered his take on Limelight to underperform from
perform.
Anantha said he made the moves following a reassessment of the
content-delivery network market after Level 3 Communications Inc.
(LVLT) said it reached a deal to be the main CDN provider for
Netflix Inc. (NFLX).
Akamai's shares fell by almost $3, or 6%, to $46.84, while
Limelight gave up 69 cents a share, or 9%, to $6.95.