Acquisition news lifted the markets to a higher open with the Dow gaining 27 points to 16,761. Nasdaq rose 8 points to 4,306.
On the upside
Priceline will pay a premium of approximately $2.6 billion to acquire OpenTable (Nasdaq: OPEN).
Sycamore Partners, which has acquired a 9.9% stake in Express (NYSE: EXPR), may make a bid for the retailer.
InterCloud Systems (Nasdaq: ICLD) has become a VMware partner.
On the downside
Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR) reported sharply higher fourth quarter earnings but the results fell short of analyst expectations and the company forecast current quarter revenue below estimates.
Capstone Turbine (Nasdaq: CPST) widened losses for the fourth quarter.
GNC Holdings (NYSE: GNC) chief financial officer Michael M. Nuzzo resigned.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of 10 to 9 on the NYSE while advancers edged out decliners by nearly 3 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 added 2 points to 1932. Bitcoin gained $22.95 or 3.82% to $601.20.
