Wall Street Beat: Merger mania continues

March is turning out to be merger mania month. Acquisitions and takeover battles are providing excitement in a technology investment market that has been depressed by news about modest corporate IT spending plans and general economic concerns about rising oil prices and interest rates.

A good first quarter revenue forecast from Intel  last week failed to set the stage for a generally upbeat tech trading week or even sustained higher share prices for Intel itself. Some analysts suggested that global economic concerns played a part in dampening enthusiasm for all industrial sectors. Though Intel raised the low end of its first quarter forecast, from $8.8 billion to $9.2 billion, oil prices during the week, for example, played out to traders’ concerns, hitting record levels Thursday, when quotes for April oil futures prices went over $57.60 a barrel. On Thursday Intel (trading symbol: INTC) closed at $23.41, down 5.79 percent for the week.

Trader interest was sparked, on the other hand, by the Monday announcement that IBM would buy data integration software maker Ascential Software for $1.1 billion in cash. The acquisition is expected to bolster IBM’s middleware and information integration products. Ascential (ASCL) shares rose by $2.59 to $18.29 while IBM (IBM) shares ticked upward by $0.39 to $91.90 Monday. Though IBM gradually settled down over the week, Ascential shares closed Thursday at $18.35, up 18.23 percent for the week.

The software arena saw a continued battle over retail-management software company Retek, which Thursday accepted a new bid from enterprise resource planning application company SAP. SAP’s bid, of $11 cash per share, beat Oracle’s $9 per share offer. On Thursday, Retek (RETK) shares moved up by $1.13 to close at $11.65, up 10.95 percent for the week. Oracle (ORCL) shares closed up $0.17, at $40.25, while SAP (SAP) closed down by $0.02, at $40.25.

In the telecommunications sector, the war of words and dollars surrounding competing bids for MCI  continued. Thursday, Qwest Communications International  made an expected increase in its offer to acquire MCI, in a bid to edge out Verizon Communications. MCI and Verizon announced an acquisition deal last month.

Qwest is now offering to pay about $26 in cash and stock for each share of MCI, up from its previous counteroffer of $24.60 per share. That brings the total value of the deal up to about $8.5 billion, topping Verizon’s package, worth about $6.7 billion. MCI, which was going to decide on the earlier offer by the end of the week, now says it will make a decision on March 28.

Verizon executives suggest the Qwest offer is a desperate gamble from a smaller company with weak finances. Qwest officials claim that, due to common assets, a merger with MCI would eliminate expenditures and ongoing operational costs.

MCI (MCIP) shares were buffeted by the news, closing at $23.30 Thursday, down 1.81 percent for the week but still up by 11.61 for the month. Also on Thursday, Qwest (Q) shares closed at $3.74, down 2.60 percent for the week and 5.79 percent for the month, while Verizon (VZN) shares closed at $35.21, down 2.65 percent for the week and 2.51 percent for the month.

In other tech market news:

–Shares of Research In Motion (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry, Wednesday jumped $11.87 to $78.96 on the announcement that the company will pay $450 million to NTP Inc. to resolve patent litigation.

–Shares of Cray (CRAY) dropped by $0.78 to close at $2.23 Thursday after the company said it would delay its annual report to gain time to review its internal controls. The company indicated that auditing was crimped by insufficient review of third-party contracts.