MIDDAY MARKETS: Microsoft, Legato sink techs, Nasdaq slides 5%

Microsoft and Legato led a 5.6 percent decline at midday Monday as investors bailed on tech stocks. The Nasdaq lost 257.86 to 4,314.97 and the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 145.51 to 11,067.43.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index dropped 27 to 594.46.

While Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will release his ruling on whether Microsoft violated the nation's antitrust laws at 5 p.m. EDT , investors were issuing their own ruling on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares by shaving off 14 3/16 to 92 1/16.

Legato Systems (Nasdaq: LGTO) plunged 23 27/64 to 21 13/64, or 52 percent, after it said its 1999 results will likely be cut because its sales representatives entered into unauthorized agreements. Competitor Veritas (Nasdaq: VRTS) was also down 10 7/8 to 120 1/8.

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) was another heavily traded loser, down 3 5/8 to 73 11/16 after news chief technology officer, Judith Estrin, will leave at the end of April to become an entrepreneur.

VoiceStream (Nasdaq: VSTR), down 3 9/16 to 125 1/2, is hooking up with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia (NYSE: NOK), down 11 11/16 to 210 5/16, in a $500 million deal for handset and network expansion.

JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq: JDSU) was down 5 percent, or 5 9/16 to 115, on news United States antitrust officials have asked it and E-Tek Dynamics Inc. (Nasdaq: ETEK), down 21 5/8 to 213 5/8, for more information on their proposed stock swap.

BroadVision (Nasdaq: BVSN) shot up 8 percent, and was up 3 1/16 to 47 15/16 at midday after it extended its deal with Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), up 7/64 to 93 13/16, inked a deal with RSW Software, and released the next generation of its e-business software.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) was down 2 13/16 to 129 3/4.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 2 1/8 to 64 7/8, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) was down 4 13/16 to 166 9/16 and America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) dropped 13/16 to 66 7/16.