Stock Futures Fluctuate Following Verizon and Yahoo! Merger

New York (July 25)  Stock futures wavered on Monday morning following Verizon's (VZ)  announcement that it was buying Yahoo! (YHOO) .

S&P 500 futures rose 0.03%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures added 0.23%, and Nasdaq futures were flat.

Verizon agreed to acquire Yahoo!'s core Internet business for $4.8 billion after a months-long bidding process with multiple parties. Other potential candidates had included AT&T and private-equity firm TPG. Verizon's acquisition adds Yahoo!'s media companies including Yahoo Finance and Tumblr to Verizon's ad and media business, which includes last year's purchase of AOL. Yahoo! shares slipped 1% in premarket trading while Verizon shares rose slightly.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) and SolarCity (SCTY)  have made more steps toward agreeing upon a merger, according to Reuters. Elon Musk's companies are in the final stages of carrying out due diligence and could agree upon terms in coming days. Musk, which owns a significant stake in both, hopes to merge SolarCity panels with Tesla's current in-house auto battery packs, while also expanding into other vehicle models such as electric trucks and buses. Tesla announced the $2.8 billion offer last month.

Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment (AMC) agreed to acquire Carmike Cinemas (CKEC) . The cash-and-stock deal is worth $1.2 billion and will likely result in annual cost synergies of roughly $35 million. Carmike shares added nearly 3% in premarket trading.

In earnings news, Sprint (S) jumped 4% after its quarterly loss widened but sales topped estimates. The telecom giant, as expected by analysts, reported a per-share loss of 8 cents a share, wider than its loss of a penny a share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $8.01 billion came in higher than $7.99 billion consensus. Sprint reported postpaid net additions of 173,000 over its first quarter.

Source: TheStreet