STOCKS NEWS US-Dell CEO: IBM-Sun talks create a good opportunity

The chief executive officer of Dell Inc (DELL.O) on Tuesday
said that talk of International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N)
possibly buying Sun Microsystems (JAVA.O) provided an "enormous
opportunity" to the company in the corporate server market.

The talk creates uncertainty over the future of Sun's
Solaris-based servers and accelerated a customer migration to
the servers based on standard industry components, known as x86
servers, which are Dell's mainstay product, he said.

Foe details, see [ID:nT247385]

Shares of Dell closed Monday at $10.45 while Sun
Microsystems shares slid 1 cent to $7.93 in premarket trade and
IBM, a Dow component, slid 1.2 percent to $97.50.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0731 ET 24March2009-Chevron invited to bid on Iraq oilfield
contract
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iraq has invited Chevron Corp (CVX.N) to jointly bid with
France's Total
against Norway's StatoilHydro for a contract to develop its 6
billion barrel
Nahr Bin Umar oilfield, the country's oil minister said on
Tuesday.

"The Total and Chevron consortium are favored to win this
contract because
they have together studied a group of Iraqi oil fields,
including Nahr Bin
Umar," a senior official in the ministry told Reuters.

For details, see [ID:nLO241868]

Shares of Chevron closed Monday at $69.15.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0727 ET 24March2009-Many top AIG bonus recipients return money
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen of 20 leading bonus recipients at American
International Group
(AIG.N) have agreed to give back the bonuses in full, said
Andrew Cuomo, the
New York Attorney General.

Cuomo said he hopes to recoup $80 million of the bonus
payments, or about
half of the $165 the insurance company paid out to its
employees.

The bonuses have been controversial, as AIG has received
billions of
dollars in taxpayer aid. [ID:nN23301448]

Shares of AIG slid 9 cents to $1.39 in premarket trade.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0719 ET 24March2009-Sprint may rent excess network capacity:
WSJ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sprint-Nextel (S.N) on Tuesday said it was looking to rent
the excess
capacity on its network to makers of consumer gadgets,
according to a report in
the Wall Street Journal.

The company is talking with such companies as Garmin
(GRMN.O), Eastman
Kodak (EK.N) and storage device maker (SNDK.O) about delivering
wireless
Internet service for their products, the paper reported.
[ID:nBNG459841]

In these deals, Sprint would generally collect fees from
manufacturers
based on how much data is transmitted to the devices.

Shares of Sprint closed Monday at $3.70.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net
0714 ET 24March2009-Oil slides after surge in Monday's session
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May crude oil futures slid on Tuesday, following a strong
rally in Monday's
session, which came as equities were lifted by a new U.S.
banking rescue plan.

"We're seeing a bit of a correction this morning," said
Christopher Bellew,
oil broker at Bache Commodities in London.

The contract slide 1.3 percent to $53.12 per barrel.
[ID:nSP459944]

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net