Analyst Upgrades

• Akamai (AKAM) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Las Vegas Sands (LVS) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Aetna (AET) to Outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Hot Topic (HOTT) to buy from neutral at Janney Capital.
• Colonial Properties (CLP) upgraded to Outperform from market perform at FBR Capital and to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• Altera (ALTR) to buy from hold at Citigroup.
• American Reprographics (ARC), CarMax (KMX) and American Campus (ACC) to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Zebra Tech (ZBRA) to neutral from underweight at JPMorgan.
• IMAX (IMAX) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Basic Energy (BAS) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• Mednax (MD) to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• UTi Worldwide (UTIW) to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

Analyst Upgrades

• Electronic Arts (ERTS) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Helix Energy (HLX) to overweight from equal weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Quest Software (QSFT) to neutral from sell at Goldman.
• LTX-Credence (LTXC) to buy from hold at Needham.
• Anadarko (APC) to buy from hold at Canaccord.
• Walgreen (WAG) to hold from sell at Citigroup.
• Pericom (PSEM) to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.

Throughout much of December, the rumors were rampant that Spinvox would sell out. A big problem was that the company owed $47 million in debt, which was coming due by the end of January.

And yes, the rumors proved true. Today, Nuance (NUAN) announced that it purchased Spinvox for $102.5 million ($66 million in cash and the rest in Nuance stock). Keep in mind that the company has raised $158 million in venture capital.

Nuance Communications (Nasdaq: NUAN), which is a leader in speech recognition software, has built its business through an aggressive M&A strategy (the company's technology will be deployed on about a billion mobile phones this year).

And, this week the company has struck another deal: the acquisition of Jott (the price was not disclosed).

The company has a cool service, which converts speech into text -- and then emails the message.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Mako Surgical, ArcSight and ICU Medical were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Mako Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO) was initiated with an Overweight rating at JP Morgan. The firm believes Mako has the most compelling system for navigated, robotic assisted orthopedic surgery to date.
  
• After ArcSight (NASDAQ: ARST) reported better-than-expected results for its Q3 and guidance for Q4 that Wachovia views as positive, the firm, which initiated shares with an Outperform rating, expects that regulatory compliance initiatives such as SOX will help protect the company from the slowdown, and help result in upward revisions to Wachovia's estimates in the future, as well as margin expansion.
  
• Soleil believes ICU Medical's (NASDAQ: ICUI) close distributor relationship with Hospira (NYSE: HSP) will drive its CLAVE/Custom IV franchises. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $33 target.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Bear initiated Journal Comm (NYSE: JRN) with an Outperform rating and $10.25 target.
  
• Royal KPN (NYSE: KPN) was initiated at Societe Generale with a Sell rating.
  
• Broadpoint assumed Nuance Comm (NASDAQ: NUAN) with a Buy rating and $22 target.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Nova BioScience, Saba Software and Darling were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Jefferies initiated Nova BioSource Fuels (NYSE: NBF) with a Buy rating and $3.75 target, and finds the risk/reward attractive for biofuels investors as the company has more than 100M gallons of biodiesel capacity slated to come onstream by 2009.
  
• B. Riley expects Saba Software's (NASDAQ: SABA) renewed focus on profitability to drive substantial EPS and free cash flow expansion in FY09. The firm started shares with a Buy rating and $6 target.
  
• Stephens believes Darling International (NYSE: DAR) shares offer a solid commodity cycle and an attractive renewable fuels opportunity and initiated shares with an Overweight rating and $17 target..

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Elizabeth Arden (NASDAQ: RDEN) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Wachovia.
  
• Goldman initiated Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) with a Neutral rating and $20 target.
  
• Morgan Stanley initiated ARM Holdings (NASDAQ: ARMHY) with an Equal Weight rating.