Stocks to watch for Wednesday, May 14, 2008:
 

• Clear Channel (CCU) ended negotiations and struck a deal to be purchased at a lower price of $17.9 billion. Private equity companies Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital agreed with the banks financing the deal that they'd pay $36 a share as opposed to the original offering of $39.20 a share.
• Electronic Arts (ERTS) reported a fiscal 4Q net loss of $94 million, or 30 cents a share, down from a loss of $25 million, or 8 cents a share a year ago. The company cited acquisition charges for the loss. Revenue, meanwhile, jumped up 84% to $1.13 billion, surpassing analyst expectations.
• Sony (SNE) reported quarterly profit of 29 billion yen ($277 million), down from its profit of 67.6 billion yen a year ago. The company cited its struggling Playstation 3 video game business for the loss. It also guided lower due to a strengthening yen. Quarterly sales dropped 6.5 percent to 1.95 trillion yen ($18.6 billion), Sony said.
• Whole Foods Market (WFMI) reported fiscal 2Q net income of $40 million, or 29 cents a share, down 13% from $46 million, or 32 cents a share a year ago. Despite strong sales, the company was hurt by its acquisition of Wild Oats, which cost $8.6 million, or 6 cents per share, in the quarter. Revenue rose 28 percent to $1.87 billion, but fell short of analysts' forecast of $1.89 billion.
• Yahoo (YHOO) has seen 50 million of its shares bought up by billionaire investor Carl Icahn since the deal with Microsoft (MSFT) fell through. According to The Wall Street Journal, Icahn is leaning toward launching a proxy contest to unseat at least part of Yahoo's board, said people familiar with the situation. His decision should come today as Yahoo's deadline for board nominations is tomorrow.

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• Asian trading closed skewed to the upside with the Hang Seng -0.08%, Nikkei +1.18%, Sensex +1.35%, Taiwan +0.32% and Shanghai +2.73%.
• A glance across the pond finds Europe mixed with the CAC +0.34%, DAX -0.15%, FTSE +0.07%, ATX +0.72%, Swiss Mkt. +0.26% and Stockholm -0.53%.
• In commodities, crude oil is trading down -0.36 to 125.44 and gold is also lower -5.4 to 864.2 this morning.