Movers: GM, Starwood Hotels, BorgWarner, National Instruments

Stocks in the news Friday

From Standard & Poor's Equity Research

General Motors (GM) shares were higher on report that GM received the first installment ($4 billion) of $9.4 billion in low-cost government loans GM is expected to receive through January, and as GMAC TARP funding gets approved.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT) rises 2.84 to 20.74. According to an SEC filing, a group co-founded by Samuel Zell, Equity Group Investments LLC, said it entered into a confidentiality agreement with HOT. Equity Group beneficially holds 14.75M HOT shares, or 8.1%, according to the filing.

BorgWarner (BWA) gets notice of unsolicited mini-tender offer by TRC Capital Corp. to purchase up to 2.5 million BWA shares (about 2.16% of BWA's outstanding shares) at $20 each. BWA recommends stockholders not tender their shares in response to it.

National Instruments (NATI) sees lower-than-expected fourth quarter revenue of $202 million, non-GAAP EPS of $0.29-0.30; sees 2008 revenue of about $820 million. Says its orders received in December were within range anticipated in the company's business update conference call on Dec. 4; however, impact of expected yearend pause in purchasing expanded to include rescheduling of about $5 million in orders that had been booked as of Nov. 30 and that NATI had anticipated shipping in December.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Viacom (VIA.B) jointly announce that they have reached an agreement in principle to renew carriage for Viacom's MTV Networks. The companies expect to finalize the details of the agreement over the next several days.

Gramercy Capital (GKK) announces that its Board of Directors has elected not to pay a common stock or preferred stock dividend for the fourth quarter 2008, in order to retain capital for working capital purposes. GKK believes the dividends paid year to date fully satisfy its 2008 REIT distribution requirements.

Abigail Adams National Bancorp (AANB) agrees to be acquired by Premier Financial Bancorp in a 100% stock exchange valued at about $10.9 million. Under terms of the definitive agreement, each share of AANB will be converted into 0.4461 share of PFBI.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) says it has extended its agreement with McDonald's USA, LLC to source, roast and package Newman's Own Organics Blend coffee for more than 600 McDonald's restaurants in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Albany, NY.