By Dow Jones
Palm Inc. highlighted tech-sector action for a second session on
Monday with the smartphone maker's shares climbing as much as 20%
following reports the company is looking for a buyer.
Palm (PALM) climbed $1.01 to $6.16 a share, after Bloomberg News
reported the company has hired Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners
to search for a buyer for the maker of the Pre and other
smartphones. Palm has seen its fortunes turn south of late due to
weak sales and competition from the likes of Apple Inc. (AAPL) and
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM).
Palm's gains came on the heels of its stock rising 11% on Friday
on reports that Taiwanese handset maker HTC and Chinese PC maker
Lenovo were interested in acquiring Palm.
Other tech stocks following Palm's lead included Apple, Dell
Inc. (DELL), Seagate Technology (STX) and EMC Corp. (EMC).
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) rose 69 cents, or almost 3%, to
$25.63 a share. Analyst John Pitzer of Credit Suisse raised his
rating on the chip maker to outperform from neutral, and lifted his
target price on TI's stock to $32 a share from $24.
ValueClick Inc. (VCLK) fell 10 cents a share to $9.94. On
Friday, the online marketing company said Chief Executive Tom
Vadnais was retiring and that its third-quarter revenue would be at
the midpoint of its previously forecast range of $93 million to $97
million.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose 4 points to 2,458, while
the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) and the Morgan Stanley
High Tech 35 Index (MSH) edged upward.
Intel Corp. (INTC) was at its breakeven point of $22.55 a day
ahead of the semiconductor giant's quarterly earnings report.