A Special Committee of its Board recommended the Board approve a $35 cash per share bid from BNP Paribas to acquire Bancwest BWE

.

S&P maintains hold on Computer Associates CA

despite questions about accounting practices. On Friday the company said its April 16 financial results contained a typographical error: should have posted operating EPS of $0.16.

Dain Rauscher says it's bullish on Extreme Networks EXTR

after the company's analyst day, and reiterates buy.

Dain Rauscher downgraded BEA Systems BEAS

to buy from strong buy.

Robertson Stephens downgraded Carreker Corp. CANI

to long-term attractive from buy.

American Superconductor AMSC

and GE's Industrial Systems unit received a follow-on order from Entergy Corp. for two additional distributed superconducting magnetic energy storage (D-SMES) units.

Telecorp PCS TLCP

announced the placement of about 7.5M shares, raising its public float to about 26.5M shares.

Nova Corp. NIS

agreed to be acquired by US Bancorp USB

in a stock and cash deal valued at about $2.1B. S&P downgraded Nova to hold.

Davita DVA

posted $0.24 Q1 EPS, excluding cash recoveries, on total revenues of $386M. S&P maintains accumulate.

Robertson Stephens downgraded Carreker Corp. CANI

to long-term attractive from buy.

Retek RETK

CS First Boston says the company is off to a strong start in Q2 and reiterates buy.

LanOptics's LNOP

unit EZchip Technologies and Avaya announced a pact to use EZchip's NP-1 network processor in Avaya's next generation of 10-Gigabit routing switches.

Prudential downgraded JP Morgan Chase JPM

to sell from hold.

Goldman removed Guitar Center GTRC

from its recommended list and now rates market outperform. On Thursday the company posted $0.22 vs. $0.19 Q1 EPS.

CS First Boston upgraded Standard Pacific SPF

to buy from hold, given the attractive valuation.

Weyerhaeuser raised its earlier cash tender offer for all Willamette Industries WLL

shares to $50 per share from $48.

Williams Cos. WMB

is in advanced talks to buy Barrett Resource BRR

for at least $2.3B in cash and stock, topping a hostile $2B cash bid from Royal Dutch, according to press reports.

The Wall St. Journal. reported 3Com Corp. COMS

plans a second round of "substanial" layoffs, as the company tries to meet its goal of cutting annual operating costs by $1B. S&P maintains hold.

FedEx Corp. FDX

sees $0.50-$0.60 Q4 EPS vs. $0.85 year ago, citing deteriorating economic conditions. FedEx sees softness continuing into fiscal 2002 and expects Q1 fiscal 2002 EPS to be significantly below the year ago's $0.58.

Ultramar Diamond UDS

agreed to be acquired by Valero Energy in a $6B deal. Terms: 1.228 VLO shares for about half of Ultramar outstanding stock, and $55 cash for remaining Ultramar shares.

Portal Software PRSF

sees a $0.19-$0.21 Q1 loss (pro forma) from operations and $42M-$44M 1Q revenues, citing a greater than expected overall

global downturn. CIBC World downgraded to buy from strong buy.

In response to news reports on Friday that Guidant Corp. GDT

violated the law by making improper claims about safety and effectiveness of its Contak CD, Guidant believes it's in full compliance with all legal and regulatory guidelines. S&P maintains accumulate. Merrill maintains near term accumulate and long-term buy.

Dr. Robert Temple of FDA says the effect of Virohpharma's VPHM

Picovir cold drug, currently in trials, may be too small to be useful. The drug doesn't appear to fall into any of the categories of effectiveness, according to a Barron's report.

Lucent Technology LU

named Frank D'Amelio, formerly group president of Lucent's Switching Solutions Group as CFO, succeeding Deborah Hopkins. CS First Boston says the departure is negative.

Proxicom PXCM

received a proposal from Dimension Data Holding plc. to acquire all shares of Proxicom for $7.50 per share in cash.