Before the bell: ORCL, BEAS, BA, AAPL, TXN, CLWR, PEP ...

Before the bell: Futures lower after Intel, ahead of CPI

Seems 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.