Merger Monday Puts Techs In Play

A pair of blockbuster mergers in the technology sector Monday had investors wondering who might be next.

Oracle’s $5.85 billion acquisition of Siebel and eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of VoIP provider Skype gave the Nasdaq a boost on an otherwise lackluster trading day.

Oracle competitor SAP and Siebel competitor Salesforce.com were little changed as investors tried to figure out what their next moves might be. Some analysts speculated that SAP might try to acquire Salesforce.com or head in another direction by buying an infrastructure company such as BEA Systems .

Internet stocks, meanwhile, had a lively day after eBay shook up the space. Baidu.com rocketed for the second straight day on takeover speculation, and fellow Chinese Internet stocks Netease , Sohu and Sina jumped as analysts upgraded the sector. Tom Online , which announced a joint venture in China with Skype a week ago, rose 5%.

The broader market paused ahead of key inflation reports on Tuesday and Thursday.

The Nasdaq rose 7 to 2182, the S&P slipped 1 to 1240, and the Dow added 4 to 10,682. Volume declined to 1.94 billion shares on the NYSE, but rose to 1.76 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 17-15 on the NYSE, while advancers led 17-12 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 46% on the NYSE, and 66% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 222-22 on the NYSE, and 163-34 on the Nasdaq.