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STOCKS TO WATCH: CMGI, Network Appliance and Niku

2 min read

Expect the following technology stocks to be among Friday's most actively traded issues: CMGI, Network Appliance and Niku.

  • CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI)

    The Internet incubator should gain ground Friday after it topped analysts' estimates in its second quarter, losing $186 million, or 74 cents a share.

    First Call consensus expected it to lose $1.28 a share in the quarter.

    In the year-ago, CMGI earned $13 million or 6 cents a share.

    Its shares closed up 6 1/8 to 144 5/8 ahead of the earnings report but moved up to 149 in after-hours trading.

  • Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP)

    Network Appliance shares should see considerable action Friday after it announced late Friday that it had formed a strategic partnership with Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) to provide filer systems and storage networking technology.

    Under terms of the agreement, Network Appliance systems will become Yahoo!'s preferred solution to manage the data access and storage requirements for Yahoo! users.

    "Network Appliance systems have helped us to scale our infrastructure fast and effectively," said CTO Farzad Nazem in a prepared release. "NetApp supplies valuable tools that help enable us to store the content for select Yahoo! properties and power our systems - safely and securely."

    Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    Network Appliance shares closed up 22 1/16 to 240 3/8 Thursday.

  • Niku Corp. (Nasdaq: NIKU)

    The Internet software and services provider Niku posted a fourth-quarter loss of $13.8 million, or $1.63 a share, on sales of $5.2 million. Last week, Niku raised $205 million in its initial public offering.

    Its shares closed off 7 3/4, or 9 percent, to 80 1/2 ahead of the earnings report.

    There was no First Call consensus estimate for Niku (Nasdaq: NIKU) this quarter.

    Niku shares stormed up 189 percent in its Feb. 29 IPO after pricing 8 million shares at $24 a piece.

    In the year-ago quarter, Niku lost $1.2 million, or 23 cents a share, on sales of $15,000.

  • Qwest Communications Inc. (NYSE: Q)

    The company said the "major telecommunications company with whom it had been in discussions" has pulled out of talks because of demands from Qwest's partner U S West Inc.(NYSE: USW), according to Friday's Wall Street Journal.

    The news leaves Qwest and U S West on uneasy terms for the completion of their $36 billion merger pact. It also leaves the reported suitor, Deutsche Telekom AG, without the means to become a worldwide telecommunications player.

    Reuters contributed to this report.