MOST NOTEWORTHY: European pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Taleo and McAfee were today's noteworthy initiations:

• UBS resumed coverage of Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) with a Buy rating and AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN), Roche Holding (OTC: RHHBY), Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) with Neutral ratings.
  
• Deutsche Bank believes new product leverage can bring upside to consensus operating margin expectations at Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and they view shares as attractively valued given its growth profile. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $33 target.
• Keybanc initiated shares of Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) with a Hold rating and sees slowing growth rates for revenue and net subscriber additions throughout the remainder of FY08 and beyond and thinks investor expectations are too high.
• Keybanc also started shares of Taleo Corporation (NASDAQ: TLEO) with a Buy rating and $27 target, as it is well-positioned to gain market share in the Human Capital Management space.
• Thomas Weisel believes McAfee Inc (NYSE: MFE) will benefit from PC market growth, enhanced awareness of the company's brand, and its renewed focus on product development for the midmarket corporate segment, and started shares with a Market Weight rating and $37 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) was started at William Blair with an Outperform rating and at UBS with a Neutral rating and $37 target.
• Merrill Lynch initiated shares of Zoltek Companies Inc (NASDAQ: ZOLT) with a Buy rating and $50 target.
• Bear Stearns started shares of Capital Product Partners (NASDAQ: CPLP) with a Peer Perform rating.
• Oppenheimer initiated shares of BFC Financial (NYSE: BFF) with a Buy rating and $3.50 target.

In a move that could complement its other recent acquisitions, Roche Holding Ltd (OTC: RHHBY) yesterday made a $75-a-share hostile bid for Ventana Medical Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: VMSI). The $3 billion cash offer would allow Roche to gain a test Ventana developed to screen patients who could respond to the Swiss pharmaceutical giant's breast cancer medicine, Herceptin. The main goal of acquiring Ventana would be to "move closer toward delivering tools to select the right drugs for the right patients, rather than saving costs," Roche CEO Franz Humer told the Wall Street Journal.

Roche has already agreed to three other diagnostic acquisitions this year: The company agreed to buy CuraGen Corporation's (NASDAQ: CRGN) 454 Life Sciences in March for $140 million, allowing it to gain the company's DNA-mapping technology, and later agreed to acquire BioVeris Corporation (NASDAQ: BIOV) for $600 million and NimbleGen Systems for $272.5 million. The acquisition of BioVeris will add a screening technology that stimulates cells to emit light, while the NimbleGen acquisition would add more genetic tools for drug research.

Should an acquisition be seen as a sure thing? No, executives at Ventana said. Although Roche has made several friendly efforts to engage in "meaningful discussions" with Ventana's chairman and board concerning a transaction, Ventana has so far rebuffed Roche. The company advised shareholders in taking any action in response to the offer, but said the Board would review Roche's offer and make a recommendation within 10 days. What may make this particular offer different is that the $75-per-share offer was nearly 45% higher than Ventana's closing price of $51.74 yesterday.

In the event of an acquisition, Roche said it would operate Ventana as a separate unit within its diagnostics division, allowing it to retain its management team and employees as well as its headquarters in Arizona. This would be a similar agreement to the one Roche maintains with U.S. biotech company Genentech Inc (NYSE: DNA), which is majority-owned by Roche but is managed as an independent company.

Based on a potential acquisition, analysts believe that biotechnology companies Gen-Probe Incorporated (NASDAQ: GPRO), Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ: LMNX) and Cepheid Inc (NASDAQ: CPHD) could be potential acquisition targets based on their technology platforms and product offerings.