Before the bell: Futures lower after Intel, ahead of CPISeems there's no stopping Larry Ellison, not a bear market, not a possible looming recession. Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) agreed to buy BEA Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) for $8.5 billion, or a per-share price of about $19.38, after raising its original price of $17 per share to win over the board. According to Oracle, the transaction should add as much as 2 cents to per-share profit, excluding some items, in the first full year after its completion, probably by mid-year. Trading in BEA, which closed at $15.58 Tuesday, was halted. ORCL shares are down nearly 2.4% in premarket trading (7:35 a.m.) to $20.80.
Airbus said Wednesday it trailed Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) in logging new orders last year by a total of 72 civilian jets -- 1341 for Airbus vs. 1413 for Boeing -- but beat its U.S. rival in terms of deliveries -- 453 to 441. For 2008, the planemaker expects orders to exceed deliveries.
Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Jobs failed to wow Street in his keynote address at Macworld Tuesday. Apple shares closed down 5.45% to $169.04. So while TechCrunch wonders whether Apple TV will indeed be able to take online movie rentals mainstream, CrunchGear has already dubbed the MacBook Air, MacBook AirHead, saying it is basically useless. You can go read the reasonings. Apple shares are declining another 2.2% in premarket trading.
Intel is dragging down several tech names: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is down 4% in premarket, Advance Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) shares are down 3.4% in premarket trading, Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) indicating down 5.7% and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is also indicating 3.5% lower in premarket trading, to name just a few.
TheStreet.com looks at the yesterday's announced deal between Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) where Google applications would be offered on Clearwire's wireless Web platform. This further pushes Google application in what could become the trend, putting yet more pressure on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) suite of applications.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) said Wednesday it licensed rights to Germany-based Scil Technology GmbH's developing osteoarthritis treatment.
PepsiCo Inc (NYSE: PEP)'s Naked Juice Co said on Wednesday that Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX) will start selling soon some of its bottled juices.
Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
