By Rex Crum
Technology stocks were mostly lower in afternoon trading Monday,
as the Nasdaq Composite Index led a broad sell off on Wall Street
on concern about how big tech companies will do in the coming
earnings season.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq (RIXF) fell almost 21 points to 1,775,
while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) gave up 2%. The
Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was also down by more than
1%.
Among leading tech stocks, losses came from Apple Inc. (AAPL),
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), IBM Corp. (IBM),
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Intel Corp. (INTC).
Data Domain (DDUP) was one of the few notable advancers, as the
disaster-recovery technology company's shares rose 91 cents, or
2.8%, to $34.13.
Data Domain got a lift after EMC (EMC) raised its all-cash bid
for the company to $33.50 a share from its previous offer of $30 a
share. Data Domain has agreed to be acquired by NetApp (NTAP) for
$30 a share in cash and stock, but EMC's new bid may cause Data
Domain to re-visit the latest offer.
Before the market opened, NetApp said it received regulatory
clearance to proceed with acquiring Data Domain, which has
scheduled a special shareholders' meeting for Aug.14 to approve the
deal.
Data Domain has been in play in late May since it reached a deal
to be acquired by NetApp for $25 a share. Since then, NetApp and
EMC have increased their offers for the data-services technology
company.
Data Domain shares rose 92 cents, or 2.8%, to $34.13 following
EMC's latest offer. EMC's stock was down 2 cents a share at $12.77,
while NetApp gave up 14 cents a share to fall to $18.82.