Tech Stocks: Tech stocks jump; Dell buyout now official

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Dell Inc. took the tech-sector spotlight Tuesday as the PC giant announced its days as a public company would soon come to an end in a private-equity deal valued at more than $24.4 billion.

Reuters Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell is leading a private-equity buyout of the PC maker.

The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP �rose nearly 1% to 3,161, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index SOX �and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index MSH �also advanced by 1% each.

Dell DELL �said it would be acquired by Chief Executive and founder Michael Dell and technology investment firm Silver Lake Partners, ending about three weeks of speculation. The deal values Dell at $24.4 billion, or $13.65 a share, a 25% premium over Dell�s Jan. 11 closing price of $10.88 a share. Dell picked that date because it was the last trading day before the first reports of the company going private were published. See: Dell to go private in $24.4 billion deal.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT �will contribute a $2 billion loan to help finance the deal.

According to a Dell statement, Michael Dell owns about 14% of the company�s shares outstanding and will remain CEO and chairman of the company. He �will maintain a significant equity investment� in Dell after the deal to go private is complete. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter in Dell�s 2014 fiscal year.

Government IT services contractor Computer Sciences Corp. CSC �rose 8.4% to $45.41 after the company reported upbeat fiscal third-quarter results. CSC said it earned $3.27 a share on $3.78 billion in revenue, compared with a loss of $8.96 a share on sales of $3.69 billion in the same period a year. Excluding one-time items, CSC said it would have earned 77 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast CSC to earn 62 cents a share on $3.73 billion in revenue.

Click to Play Dell Goes Private

Dell said it has agreed to be taken private by a group led by founder Michael Dell, in a deal valuing the computer giant at $24.4 billion. Deal Journal's David Benoit joins Markets Hub.

Zynga Inc. ZNGA �shares climbed more than 7% to $2.75 after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post raised his rating on the online social-games company to buy from underperform, citing factors such as �asset value and mobile stabilization.� Zynga is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results after the close of trading Tuesday. See: 4 reasons Zynga got upgraded.

BlackBerry BBRY , which until this week was known as Research In Motion, saw its shares rise 7.7% to $16.13 on top of a 15% gain on Monday.

Amazon.com Inc.�AMZN �shares rose almost 2% to $265. The company debuted Amazon Coins, a new virtual currency for purchasing apps, games and in-app items on the Kindle Fire tablet.

Gains also came from Apple Inc. AAPL , Oracle Corp. ORCL , Intel Corp. INTC �and Yahoo Inc. YHOO .

A notable decliner was Chinese Internet leader Baidu Inc. BIDU � as its U.S.-listed shares fell more than 10% to $95.82 after analysts at Stifel Nicolaus and Raymond James cut their ratings on the search-engine provide to the equivalent of neutral.