Tech Roundup: Chip executive changes and Take-Two's big deal lead sector's active week
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A big executive shift between two semiconductor giants, and a surprise acquisition in the mobile-gaming market took the spotlight in the tech sector during the past week, but don't worry...There was still plenty going on with the likes of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) to grab headlines and the attention of investors, too.

If you're going to start a new job, you might as well start at the start of the year. Which is what David Zinsner is doing. Zinsner is leaving his post at the chief financial officer at memory chipmaker Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) to become the...chief financial officer at Intel
(NASDAQ:INTC). For its part, Micron (MU) said its chief business officer, Sumit Sadana, will serve as CFO on an interim basis until the company finds a permanent finance chief.
Meanwhile, Citigroup analyst Christopher Danely gave high marks to Intel's (INTC) hiring of Zinsner, saying that between Zinsner and Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger, Intel (INTC) now has a "Dream Team" at the top of its executive ranks.
Just before Micron (MU) announced Zinsner's departure, the company, along with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was cited as part of the global economy's "new oil" by Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya.
However, Nvidia (NVDA) took some shots to the body as it tried to explain to UK regulators the benefits it believes will be realized with its proposed $40 billion acquisition of Arm Holdings.
And even though Intel (INTC) got praise for its hiring of Zinsner, KeyBanc analyst John Vinh cut his rating on the semiconductor bellwether faces several challenges as CEO Gelsinger is putting a turnaround plan into action.
The first major acquisition of 2022 took place, but was a bit a surprise to some tech industry watchers, as videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) said it would acquire mobile gaming company Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) for $12.7 billion in cash and stock. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the deal would create a "transformative opportunity" for his company to expand its mobile gaming presence.
Zynga (ZNGA) shareholders loved the deal, and sent the company's stock price up by 40% on the day it was announced. Reaction to Take-Two's (TTWO) decision was mixed, as MoffettNathanson analyst Clay Griffin cut his rating on Take-Two's (TTWO) shares, but BMO Capital Markets' Gerrick Johnson raising his rating on Take-Two (TTWO) due to the Zynga (ZNGA) deal.
Apple (AAPL) pulled back from the $3 trillion market cap it hit almost two weeks ago, but would be hard for CEO Tim Cook & Co. to complain about heading up a place worth "only" $2.8 trillion. And a new research report from Canalys said Apple (AAPL) gained more share of the PC market as Mac sales grew at double the rate of PCs in the final three months of 2021.
And by the end of the week, Morgan Stanley said Apple (AAPL) is likely to take more of the PC market thanks to the use of its proprietary M1 processors, and Loop Capital raised its price target on Apple's (AAPL) stock to $210 a share, saying that the iPhone still has plenty of room to grow.
Apple (AAPL) is also looking to strike while the iron is hot with regards to its TV programming, and reportedly has held talks about carrying Major League Baseball games on its Apple TV+ streaming service.
Speaking of streaming TV, Netflix (NFLX) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results on Jan. 20. However, Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Mitchelson said concerns about Netflix (NFLX) hitting its new subscriber forecasts for the quarter have resulted in investor interest in the stock to be "as low as we have seen in the past eight years."

Hey, remember Dell (NYSE:DELL)? Or, as it is now called, Dell Technologies (DELL)? Well, Dell (DELL) shares hit an all-time high after Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi raised his rating and price target on the computer and tech services company.
Speaking of companies that could claim to be legitimate titans of the tech sector, IBM (NYSE:IBM) was downgraded at UBS due to expectations for lower IT spending and its shares having a high valuation.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that "robust" spending on cloud services this year could give Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) enough of a push to boost the company to a $3 trillion market cap.
Microsoft (MSFT) also said that it has hired a law firm to review the company's sexual harassment policies in response to a proposal approved by Microsoft shareholders last fall.