News Byte

Zynga Closes Slightly Higher Following Bullish Analyst Report

Zynga inched higher today, closing up 19 cents, or 2 percent, to $9.24 a share, following a report by Wedbush’s Michael Pachter, who initiated coverage with an outperform rating and a $12.50 price target. “We believe Zynga is well-positioned for revenue growth due to its dominant market share among social game publishers,” he wrote in a note to investors. The social gaming company’s stock still has a ways to go to reach its IPO price of $10.

Game On! Zynga Starts Slowly On First Day of Trading.

In its first morning of trading, Zynga has started trading only marginally higher at $11 a share, up from its initial $10 offering.
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Yahoo Stock Gets Gaslit by Bidders Dangling Phantom $20-a-Share Bid

There is no $20 bid for Yahoo today. So why was it suddenly news? Time to blame Wall Street again.
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“Dark Pool” Looks to Bring Pre-IPO Firms to Institutions

Liquidnet Inc., a so-called dark-pool operator that specializes in keeping big investors’ stock-market bets out of the public eye, plans to launch a platform that will enable trading in privately held companies like technology firms Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

News Byte

Apple Shares Hit Yet Another Lifetime High

On the day it announced that sales of the iPhone 4S surpassed four million units over the weekend, shares in Apple hit their second record high in as many days. Shares peaked at $426.70 a share, up $4.70 from Friday’s close of $422, before falling back in midday trading. Share price has risen by more than 97 percent this year.

Autonomy: When All Else Fails, Blame the Bankers

He still says he never shopped his company to Oracle, and Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch keeps changing his story. Wait till you read the email from his banker to Oracle President Mark Hurd.
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Tick, Tick, Tick, HP Board: The Time to Act Is Today

As Hewlett-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker twists painfully in the wind, it’s up to its directors to move quickly to end the latest crisis at the Silicon Valley tech giant.
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Dow Slides 5.5 Percent, Ending Below 11,000

U.S. stocks tumbled in a Monday rout that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 5.5 percent, plunging below 11000 for the first time since November, as investors fled from risky assets in the first trading session since Standard & Poor’s downgraded the federal government’s credit rating late Friday.

Twitter Poised to Close a Two-Stage $800M Funding, With Half Used to Cash Out Investors and Employees

In a move reminiscent of one done by Facebook in 2009, Twitter is zeroing in on a complex $800 million funding deal, which includes a tasty $400 million payout for its current investors and also employees.
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Pandora Pulls a LinkedIn, As Tech-Starved Investors Gorge on IPO

How starved are investors for high-profile, high-growth Internet companies? Hungry enough to lift the value of Pandora to just under $4 billion in an hour of trading for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “P.”
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