STOCKS NEWS US-GigaMedia shares rise, to sell stake in unit

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1213 EST 16Dec2009
GigaMedia shares rise, to sell stake in unit

Shares of GigaMedia Ltd rallied on Wednesday after the online gaming company said it would sell 60 percent of its online gambling software business to France's Mangas Gaming.

Mangas will make an up-front cash payment of $100 million at the closing of the deal, which is expected in the first quarter of 2010, and a final earn-out payment depending upon the fair market value of the business in early 2012, GigaMedia said.

GigaMedia, which expects to book a 'substantial' one-time gain, said it will hold the remaining 40 percent interest with a put option to sell all or part to Mangas beginning in 2013.

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The stock rose 8.4 percent to $4.11.

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1209 EST 16Dec2009
Credit Suisse downgrades three utility stocks

Credit Suisse on Wednesday downgraded a trio of utility stocks, seeing near-term headwinds for the group.

FirstEnergy Corp, Edison International and Allegheny Energy Inc were all cut to 'neutral' from 'outperform.'

The brokerage said FirstEnergy has a lot of near-term commodity price exposure, while Allegheny needs to rebuild credibility in its commodity exposure ability, Credit Suisse said.

Earnings per share decays for Allegheny are likely to continue into 2012, it added.

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Shares of FirstEnergy fell 1.3 percent to $46.65 while Edison fell 1.2 percent to $35.69 and Allegheny slid 0.7 percent to $23.23.

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1202 EST 16Dec2009
Constellation falls after Modelo lawsuit

Shares of Constellation Brands Inc fell on Wednesday on concerns that a lawsuit by Mexico's Grupo Modelo over the companies' U.S. joint venture could hit a key segment of Constellation's profits.

Modelo said on Tuesday it was suing a Constellation unit in a dispute over marketing at U.S. joint venture Crown Imports LLC, the exclusive U.S. importer of Modelo's Corona Extra, Modelo Especial, Corona Light, Pacifico and Negra Modelo brands, as well as St. Pauli Girl and Tsingtao beers.

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The stock shed 5 percent to $15.37.

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1159 EST 16Dec2009-Goldman positive on oil
leveraged stocks

Goldman Sachs analysts said oil markets are nearing a bullish inflection with global oil demand growth expected to exceed growth in non-OPEC supply in 2010.

The analysts recommended buying of oil-leveraged stocks to take advantage of the recent pullback in oil equities.

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1154 EST 16Dec2009-U.S. forgoes billions in taxes from Citi
report

The U.S. government 'quietly' agreed not to collect billions of dollars in potential taxes from Citigroup Inc as part of its deal to allow the bank to repay its taxpayer bailout, The Washington Post reported.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice on Friday that extends the benefit to Citi and other companies in which the government owns a stake, the Post reported.

A Citigroup spokesman declined to comment.

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Shares of Citigroup fell 2 percent to $3.49.

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1149 EST 16Dec2009
Achillion shares rally after drug data

Shares of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc rallied on Wednesday, a day after the company reported promising results from an early-stage trial of its hepatitis C drug.

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The stock climbed 53 percent to $3.29.

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