Rotten Apples?

The market was rallying into the green, looking rather stout for a change, when AAPL nosedived. After opening down almost 3 bucks to 249.60, AAPL ran to 252.92 and I regretted not hopping on at 250.

But since, AAPL has fallen off the cart and is at 247.41. Is this because of HP's solid earnings report and buyout of Palm?

Whatever the case, AAPL led the Nasdaq down and the market is red again.

Financials, which were in the green, are losing ground and FAZ is rallying back from a low of 14.44 to near 15 flat.

Going, going, gone! HP to buy Opsware

Oh well, it was a nice thought.

A few months ago, I studied the numbers of Opsware and was stumped. A solid company with savvy management (Marc Andreessen) that trades below $10 per share. A relatively small market cap. By mid-June, I gave OPSW a B+ rating, but did nothing more. Didn't buy a share though the stock was cheap at $8.22.

This morning, Hewlett Packard jumped all over OPSW with an offer of $14.25 per share. That's worth $1.6 billion, a $500 million premium on OPSW's market cap last week of $1.1 billion.

OPSW, which closed at $10.28 on Friday, is up to $14.05 in pre-market trading. HPQ is trading just 4 cents below it's Friday close of $48.54.

The ride has been swift in the past week for Opsware, which had pushed up after a partnership deal with Solidcore. Opsware shareholders can't help but be happy with the 38% premium, but how many of them will be content to hold HP shares? HP is a Co gaining a lot of momentum with shrewd moves, so it might not be bad at all.

Pupule Paul has no position in OPSW and HPQ.