MIDDAY MARKETS: Techs slide

Techs slumped at midday Monday as a slew of deals failed to excite investors. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.25 to 3787.22 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 13.18 to 11,014.62.

The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 6 to 496.68.

Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), up 9 1/16 to 234 1/8, will acquire privately-held NewPort Communications in a deal worth around $1.2 billion.

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), up 3/8 to 64 3/16, said it has agreed to buy privately held Ziatech Corp. in a cash deal valued at about $240 million.

FreeMarkets Inc. (Nasdaq: FMKT), down 29/64 to 55, announced inroads in the metals industry Monday through a deal with Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA).

Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), up 2 3/8 to 22 7/16, said it would buy privately held C2Net Software, Inc.

Trading in Value America (Nasdaq: VUSA) was halted Monday, after the company filed for bankruptcy protection and announced the closure of its e-commerce Web site.

Agilent (NYSE: A), up 2 to 42 5/8, will lay off 450 workers as part of a restructuring and cost-cutting effort, the company said today.

Kmart Corp. (NYSE: KM) and Softbank have plunged $80 million into Bluelight.com, the companies said today.

Kana Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: KANA) shot up 11 percent, or 3 11/16 to 36 5/8 after Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), down 13/16 to 63 1/2, said it will use the company's enterprise relationship management software.

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) rose 2 3/16 to 130 13/16 and AOL (NYSE: AOL) fell 1 3/16 to 52 15/16.

Among other leading tech issues: Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) was up 37/64 to 73 1/64 and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)was down 1/4 to 80 7/8.