Stocks tank as Ebay-Yahoo merger tipped

SOME BIG-NAME technology stocks tumbled yesterday with Network Appliance falling over 16 percent on a weak forecast for its next quarter, raising the spectre of a US enterprise ICT spending slowdown. CA fell eight percent while IBM and Sun were also down.

On TheStreet.com's internet TV show (warning: video plays automatically), famous/infamous shares tipper Jim Cramer described NetApp as “obviously a really challenged company”.

No stranger to self-confidence, Cramer also came up with a modest proposal -- that Yahoo and Ebay merge.

"[Ebay CEO] Meg Whitman wants to run a larger company,” Cramer said. “They have a lot of cash and could easily absorb [Yahoo]. A merger by Ebay with Yahoo could really work."

However, the great man had harsh words for those who bought into tech recently.

"People should never have gotten on the tech bandwagon," he cried. “This is a valley you cannot ride through." µ