MIDDAY MARKETS: Advertisers and incubators suck techs lower

Nagging concerns over a slowdown in online advertising revenue and health of the Internet incubator business dragged techs lower at midday Thursday. The Nasdaq dropped 37.92 to 3193.78 and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 135.37 to 10,816.81.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index was also off, falling 14 to 414.37.

Engage (Nasdaq: ENGA) and 24/7 Media (Nasdaq: TFSM) both crashed after reporting disappointing quarters. Engage dropped 1.28 to 2.19 while 24/7 Media slumped 1.06 to 3.56. Their dour results didn't bode well for competitor DoubleClick (Nasdaq: DCLK), down 3.63 to 15.13, and other online advertisers.

Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE) and CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI), two Internet incubators, both took a tumble. Internet Capital Group shed 5.44 to 10.81 while CGMI lost 3.69 to 18.13

After taking a beating all week, Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq:BRCM), up 9.69 to 161.50, reassured investors that it will meet analysts' estimates for its fourth fiscal quarter, ending Dec. 31. Shares in the company have plunged since Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) made statements about low inventory levels.

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced that it will buy Kimo, a web portal in Taiwan, for over $146 million. Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) dropped 1.5 to 32.38 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) shed 2.37 to 53.93.

Shares of computer maker Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) slumped 2.06 to 28.25 in anticipation of the company's earnings report today after the bell.

Walt Disney Internet Group (NYSE: DIG) shares were off 0.56 to 7.06 after the company reported a smaller-than-expected loss for its fourth quarter, but sales declined.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) rose 0.19 to 52.31, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) lost 1.06 to 41.63, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) gained 0.44 to 69.88, and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) moved up 0.94 to 25.75.