Here are several stocks to keep on your Monday radar:
- AOL (NYSE:AOL) said late Sunday that it had agreed to buy The Huffington Post in a bold move to boost its plan to transform to media-content provider. AOL will buy the left-leaning news and opinion website for $315 million, $300 million of that coming from cash on hand. The transaction is expected to close by the early second quarter. Shares of AOL were off about 3% in early Monday trading.
- Medical testing firm Beckman Coulter (NYSE:BEC) will be bought by Danaher (NYSE:DHR) for $83.50 a share in cash — a 45% premium over Beckman’s closing price on Dec. 9, when rumors of a deal began to affect the stock. The deal is worth $6.8 billion. Beckman shares were up another 9.6% in Monday trading.
- Offshore drilling contractor Pride International (NYSE:PDE) will be acquired by British rival Ensco (NYSE:ENV) for $41.60 a share, creating a combined company worth $16 billion. Pride stockholders will receive 0.4778 newly-issued shares of Ensco plus $15.60 in cash for each share of Pride, which was up more than 17% in Monday trading.
- Shares of Cognizant Tech (NASDAQ:CTSH) were off 0.4% after the company offered a mixed fourth-quarter earnings report. The information technology services firm beat fourth-quarter earnings and revenue estimates, but guided first-quarter and fiscal 2011 profit expectations lower.
- Progenix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PGNX) rose more than 5% in early Monday trading after the company announced an agreement to allow Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SLXP) licensing rights (excluding Japan) to Progenix’s Relistor drug.
