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Published March 27, 2008 at 6:04 PM
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 High tech was anything but high Thursday as Oracle Corp.'s 7.21% stock slide to $19.93 pulled down the sector and the broader market. The software company's 21% third-quarter sales gain to $5.35 billion was shy of analysts' expectations. It blamed the top-line shortfall on customers holding off on large purchases amid shaky economic times. The Dow Jones Industrial Average logged a second straight 100-plus point decline, losing 120.40 points on the day to close at 12,302.46.
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- BEA Systems Inc., which is pending an $8.5 billion sale to Oracle, was unaffected by the software company's decline as its stock rose 0.37% to close at $19.12 per share. The U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal late last month and it awaits approval from the European Commission. A meeting of BEA stockholders to approve the merger is scheduled for April 4.
- Axcelis Technologies Inc. was weighed down by the tech decline, losing 2.68% to close at $5.45 per share. The semiconductor equipment maker again rejected a sweetened, unsolicited offer to be purchased by Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. for $615 million earlier this month, saying the bid was too low.
- Not all was glum in deal stock trading Thursday. Clear Channel Communications Inc. jumped 9.96% to close at $29.60 per share. Clear Channel and its pending buyers Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, announced after the market closed on Wednesday that they had brought three lawsuits against a Citigroup Inc.-led lending syndicate that agreed more than a year ago to fund the $26 billion buyout, when the credit markets were robust.
- Michael Rudnick
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