On the upside
Private equity firms Berkshire Partners, Advent International and Bain Capital offered approximately $1.1 billion in cash to acquire SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL).
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced that it will separate into two companies in 2011, one focused on consumers while the other will target business clients.
Oppenheimer analyst Brian Nagel upgraded Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) and lifted his price target on the home accessories retailer saying that sales are improving.
On the downside
Labopharm (Nasdaq: DDSS) priced its offering of approximately 11.7 million units at $1.70 per unit with each unit composed of one common share and a warrant to purchase half a common share.
Senomyx (NYSE: SNMX) priced its offering of over 7.1 million common shares at $2.80 per share.
While Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) reversed year ago losses for the fourth quarter, the results fell short of analyst estimates and the manufacturer forecast disappointing first quarter earnings that missed expectations by a wide margin.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 6 to 1 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks dropped 6 points to 599.
