SAP Acquires Business Objects

123jump.com Staff
08 Oct, 2007
New York City

In the pre-market trading indexes in New York are pointing lower opening and European markets are trading slightly lower. Asian markets closed higher led by a rise in Shanghai, Philippines, and Thailand. Oil futures are showing a drop at the opening between 1% and 2%. SAP is in a deal to buy Business Objects for 4.8 billion euros or nearly $7 billion. Vodafone is in a deal to acquire Spanish and Italian assets of Tele2 AB. Akzo, the Dutch chemical maker raised its dividend by 45%.

[R]8:30AM New York – Stocks in New York are indicating a lower opening.[/R]
Market Averages futures in the pre-market New York trading are indicating weak opening with a negative bias. Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 25 to 14,131, Nasdaq futures are edging lower 6.3 to 2,773, and S&P 500 is down 4 to 1,553.
On the deal front three deals were reported in Europe. SAP Ag, German software developer has agreed to acquire French database application developer Business Objects for $6.8 billion in cash. SAP stock fell 5% in Frankfurt trading after the news but Business Objects stock gained 17% in Paris trading.
Vodafone Group agreed to acquire Italian and Spanish telecom business from Tele2 AB for $1.1 billion. Shire, pharmaceutical company agreed to sell dermatology products and six products in the development stages to Almirall of Spain for $213 million.
Oil in London trading fell 60 cents to $80.60 per barrel and is likely to go lower as spreads prices between crude oil and gasoline widens.
Traders are focuses on earnings season with Alcoa, General Electric, and Yahoo to release earnings in the next two weeks. Alcoa is expected to report earnings between 69 cents and 71 cents. Several banks are scheduled to release earnings in the next two weeks including Citigroup, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Fifth Third.
Yum brands ((YUM)) operator of fast food joints including Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell, is scheduled to report earnings 45 cents after the close in New York today.
In Asian markets trading Philippines led the region with a rise of 2.6% followed by gains in Pakistan of 1.9%, Thailand 1.3%, Taiwan 1.1%, and in Indonesia 1.0%.
Japanese markets were closed on Monday. Markets in Shanghai gained 2.5% after a week of holiday but banks led the gainers. China Life Insurance and ICBC jumped 10%, daily trading limit, and Bank of China surged 6%.
Australia closed to a record high of 6,654.30 after reaching a new intra-day record high. India fell 2.5% after two weeks of daily new record highs.
European markets at mi-day trading are slightly lower after led by UK and Spain with losses of 0.4%.