STOCKS TO WATCH: i2 Technologies, Juno Online and Sierra Wireless

i2 Technologies will see heavy trading Thursday after it agreed to buy Trade Services Holding, a database publisher of MRO transactional content, and its affiliate, ec-Content, for $5 million in cash and 2.3 million shares of stock.

i2 Technologies closed up $5.63, or 11 percent, to $56.63 ahead of the news.

The deal is expected to close sometime next month.

Intriguingly, the deal is also subject to i2’s average eight-day trailing stock price immediately prior to the closing of the deal. If the average falls below $50 a share, i2 can either pay the difference out of pocket or nix the deal altogether.

Juno Online will be worth monitoring Thursday after competitor NetZero (Nasdaq: NZRO) returned the favor by filing a patent infringement lawsuit against the free ISP.

NetZero officials claim Juno Online violated its patented ``process that enables an Internet service provider to display advertisements or messages through a window that is separate from the browser.''

This comes six months after Juno Online filed a similar complaint against NetZero.

Both stocks have been pounded below $1 a share of late.

NetZero said it filed its suit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Juno Online officials deny the allegations.

Sierra Wireless will be on the move Thursday after it warned that it will miss analysts’ earnings estimates in the fiscal year.

The maker of wireless telecommunications equipment said sales and earnings in the first half of fiscal 2001 will meet or beat estimates but the same can’t be said for the second half of the year.

Company officials late Wednesday told investors to expect a profit of 4 cents a share in the first quarter on sales of $22 million. Second-quarter earnings will check in around 4 cents a share on sales of $28.4 million.

But in the third and fourth quarters, it sees earnings of only 6 cents and 10 cents a share, respectively, on sales of $31.6 million and $37.9 million.

Add it all up and Sierra Wireless misses the First Call Corp. consensus estimate by 2 cents a share in the fiscal year.

Its shares closed off $2.94 to $52.81 ahead of the warning.>