U.S. Movers: Acorda, Duke Energy, Parexel, Porsche, Berkshire Partners

Mukesh Buch
28 Dec, 2012
New York City

Acorda completed the acquisition of Neuronex Inc. Parexel Intl. agreed to acquire Liquent, Inc. and lifted 2013 outlook. Porsche SE climbed after it won a hedge fund lawsuit. Berkshire Partners invests $2 billion and merge two telecom network providers.

[R]10:20 AM New York – Acorda completed the acquisition of Neuronex Inc. Parexel Intl. agreed to acquire Liquent, Inc. and lifted 2013 outlook. Porsche SE climbed after it won a hedge fund lawsuit. Berkshire Partners invests $2 billion and merge two telecom network providers.[/R]

Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ((ACOR)) gained 6 cents to $24.33 after the biopharmaceutical company completed the acquisition of privately held Neuronex, Inc for $6.8 million.

Barnes & Noble ((BKS)) shot up 8% after UK based Pearson agreed to invest $90 million in Nook Media, the book retailer’s digital business.

Berkshire Partners, the private equity firm will invest more than $2 billion to buy and merge Lightower Fiber Networks, a metro fiber and bandwidth provider and Sidera Networks Inc. the privately held telecom network provider to offer customers above 20,000 route miles and provide access to more than 6,000 on-net locations.

The combined company will be led by current CEO of Lightower, Rob Shanahan. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Canadian Solar Inc. ((CSIQ)) fell 1 cent to $3.36 after the solar wafers maker will acquire a majority interest in two utility scale solar power projects in Ontario with a total capacity of approximately 24 mw. The aggregate transaction price is approximately C$37 million.

Duke Energy Corporation ((DUK)) slipped 43 cents to $63.28 after the electric utility provider agreed to acquire Chilean energy conglomerate Iberoamericana de Energía Ibener S.A. including hydroelectric assets for $415 million. The transaction is expected close in the first quarter 2013.

Facebook ((FB)) declined 2% after media reports suggest that recently acquired Instagram may have lost 25% its active users since the company changed its privacy policy.

MagicJack VocalTec ((CALL)) rose 7% after the company raised its quarterly earnings estimate and appointed a new chief executive.

Parexel International Corporation ((PRXL)) increased 1.2% or 36 cents to $29.43 after the biopharmaceutical service acquired all the outstanding shares of Liquent, Inc. for $72 million, provider of information technology of regulatory submissions.

The company anticipates reporting consolidated revenue for the second quarter 2013 between $415 million and $420 million and for fiscal in the range of $1.68 to $1.70 billion.

Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the German based automaker said after the company won a dismissal of lawsuit against the company in New York Supreme Court for its purchase of Volkswagen shares.
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Twenty-six hedge funds allege fraud arising of Porsche SE''s transactions with respect to Volkswagen shares in 2008. The hedge funds seek total damages of more than $1.4 billion.

TigerLogic Corporation ((TIGR)), the software infrastructure provider agreed to acquire privately held Storycode, Inc., a mobile application publishing studio, to integrate Storycode''s technology into the Postano social visualization platform.

The acquisition is expected to close before TigerLogic''s fourth quarter of fiscal 2013.