It's not just investors that have been in a buying mood since the market bottomed out two weeks ago. Companies have also been on a shopping spree of their own.
Just as the media was buzzing about IBM (NYSE: IBM) possibly making an $8 billion play for Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA), other companies were whipping out the plastic and getting deals done.
Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is shelling out $590 million to buy Pure Digital, the company behind the popular Flip pocket video cameras. Other deals are likely if the sentiment continues to grow that Wall Street won't be revisiting its lows anytime soon.
The reasoning is simple. The same companies that didn't want to buy smaller rivals at any price when stocks were sinking, now may not want to wait until those same stocks head too much higher.
In short, the feeding frenzy starts now.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- One deal that didn't go through was Coca-Cola's (NYSE: KO) bid to buy China Huiyuan Juice Group. China's Ministry of Commerce rejected the deal on Wednesday, fearing that Coca-Cola would limit competition with the Chinese juice giant in its grasp. OK, so maybe not everybody can participate in the likely shopping spree that is kicking off.
- Early adopters, get ready to start downloading. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) officially rolled out the latest version of Internet Explorer on Thursday. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) also announced the latest version of its iPhone software, to be released early summer. iPhone 3.0 will introduce a few new features (like the ability to cut and paste) that have been sorely absent in the past. At the very least, it will give owners one more reason to brag as they whip out their iPhones.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
