Yahoo!, RIM: Tech Winners & Losers

Yahoo!, RIM story updated with closing stock prices and more information on Logitech.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Yahoo! was up in late day trading Tuesday on merger speculation, while Research In Motion fell after an analyst downgrade.

Yahoo! rose 3.22% to close at $16.97 Tuesday afternoon after reports circulated that the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based search giant could be the target of a takeover attempt by private equity group KKR. Chinese Internet company Alibaba is also rumored to be eying Yahoo! Earlier reports had also pegged AOL as a potential Yahoo! bidder.

Priceline , meanwhile, closed up more than 8% to $420.65 after releasing strong third-quarter earnings and better-than-expected fourth quarter guidance Monday.

Revenue jumped 37% to $1 billion from $730.7 million during the year-ago period. Adjusted profit rose to $5.33 a share, compared to $3.45 a share a year ago.

Computer peripherals maker Logitech jumped more than 12% and closed at $21.89. The company, whose set-top box, Revue, is featured in Google's TV effort, filed its 10-Q after market close Monday. The company also held an analyst and investor day Tuesday, where it raised its long-term gross margin outlook from 32% - 34% to a range of 35% - 37%.

Level 3 Communciations surged more than 18.6% and closed at $1.05 after the company announced it had secured a deal with Netflix . Trading of the web hosting firm was temporarily halted due to a circuit breaker trip as investors reacted to the report.

On the flip side of the flat line, shares of BlackBerry maker RIM fell more than 2.65% and closed at $55 after Kaufman Bros. downgraded the stock from buy to hold Tuesday. Also adding to the price drop was the fact that AT&T cut the price of its BlackBerry Torch smartphone in half from $199.999 to $99.99.

--Written by Olivia Oran in New York.

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