Tech investors had their heads in the cloud Monday on SAP‘s (NYSE:SAP) juicy $3.4 billion bid to buy cloud computing company SuccessFactors (NASDAQ:SFSF).
SAP, the world’s top enterprise application software company, offered to buy SFSF at about $40 per share, or a 50% premium, to keep itself competitive in an industry that’s trending toward cloud-based storage systems.
While SAP actually traded down 2% to finish the day at $58.38, the company’s announcement — coupled with the recent bid of rival Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) for cloud-based customer relationship management software company RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ:RNOW) — had the cloud sector buzzing.
According to International Business Times, BMO Capital raised its rating on rival Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO) to outperform on speculation that it too would be bought out by Oracle, which sent shares up almost 20% to $39.50 by the market’s close. The sector’s big fish, SalesForce.com (NYSE:CRM), also enjoyed a relatively modest bump, up 4.5% to $125.01.
While cloud computing is expected to be one of the top computing trends of the foreseeable future, the market sector has yet to take off, with the First Trade ISE Cloud Computing Index (NASDAQ:SKYY) ETF underperforming the Nasdaq by about 1.5 percentage points since the fund’s inception in July. SKYY gained about 2% Monday.
Another Web-based company enjoying the fruits of optimism Monday was online auctioneer and e-tailer eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), which gained almost 4% Monday on a Raymond James & Associates analyst’s upgrade of the stock. Ebay, which has been moving away from its traditional auction services and toward retail-style sales, has enjoyed a robust holiday season sparked by a strong Cyber Monday, and recently announced 18% year-over-year growth in its November same-store sales. EBAY shares finished the day at $30.70.
Three Up
- Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC): Up 12.44% (52 cents) to $4.70.
- Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI): Up 10.24% ($1.22) to $13.13.
- Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS): Up 6.77% ($1.05) to $16.57.
Three Down
- Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Down 4.45% (25 cents) to $5.37.
- Renren Inc. (NASDAQ:RENN): Down 3.96% (15 cents) to $3.64.
- Caribou Coffee (NASDAQ:CBOU): Down 2.9% (39 cents) to $13.06.
As of this writing, Kyle Woodley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. Check out our list of previous IP Market Recaps.
