A hostile bid by Swiss health care company Roche (PINK: RHHBY ) for gene
sequencer Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN ) sent ILMN shares through the roof Wednesday
and ignited rallies across the tiny sector. Roche is offering to buy Illumina
for $5.7 billion, or $44.50 per share about a 20% premium from ILMN's Tuesday
closing price around $37.80. However, Illumina stock finished Wednesday at
$55.15 per share almost 46% higher. Roche is trying to corner the market in the
DNA sequencing business its currently the No. 3 player, behind Life
Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE ) and Illumina, the leader in market share at 65%.
Other genetic-based businesses rose in suit, including Complete Genomics
(NASDAQ: GNOM , +19.6%) and Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ: PACB ,
+16.2%). Life Technologies also saw a relatively modest gain of 3.7%. Netflix
(NASDAQ: NFLX ) was cruising in after-hours trading on a strong earnings report
that also included a 2.5% increase in subscribership. The company reported
earnings of $41 million, or 73 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 55
cents, though down 16% from the year-ago period. NFLX shares were trading up
more than 10% in after-hours trading. A couple other big movers on Wednesday
came from the airlines industry, where US Airways (NYSE: LCC , +17.3%) and Delta
Air Lines (NYSE: DAL , +6.2%) both gained ground after their morning earnings
reports beat Wall Street expectations. Heading the other direction after
earnings were Xerox (NYSE: XRX , -9.9%) and Corning (NYSE: GLW , -10.7%) though
InvestorPlace Editor Jeff Reeves thinks the dip in GLW shares might be a good
buy-and-hold opportunity . Three Up Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY ): Up 9.8% ($1.51) to
$16.92. Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM ): Up 8.6% ($1.29) to $16.30. Apple
(NASDAQ: AAPL ): Up 6.2% ($26.25) to $446.66. Three Down Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO ):
Down 16% ($4.84) to $25.50. ( Read more about Fusion-io here .) LM Ericsson
(NASDAQ: ERIC ): Down 15.5% ($1.59) to $8.64. WellPoint (NYSE: WLP ): Down 4.8%
($3.30) to $66.10. Kyle Woodley is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com. As
of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned
securities. Check out recaps from previous trading days here .
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