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Week in Preview: Discover, Oracle and Tiffany Earnings

Oracle, Discover and Tiffany are all expected to report year-over-year growth for their most recent quarters this week. Meanwhile, many will be looking for an updated snapshot of the housing market, with three sets of real-estate data coming out.

Stocks Close Higher for the Week, Once Again

Stocks closed modestly mixed on light volume Friday in the last full trading week of the year, which marked the third week in a row of overall gains. While drugmakers Pfizer and Merck put a damper on the Dow, robust earnings from Oracle and Research In Motion helped lift tech stocks.

Short Sellers Increase Bets Against Big Tech

Are traders expecting a sell-off in big tech? Short sellers have increased their gambles against big-tech shares in the period that ended Nov. 30, with shares sold sold short in Intel rising 81%.

Hewlett-Packard Close to ArcSight Deal

HP is close to a deal to buy security software maker ArcSight (ARST). The transaction would be worth about $1.5 billion, or a little more that $43 a share. That's a 24% premium over where ArcSight's shares traded on September 10.

Cisco, Westcon to Pay $48 Million for Cheating U.S.

Cisco Systems and Westcon Group North America agreed to pay $48 million to settle charges they paid kickbacks and referral fees to win government business, and then recouped those costs and more by overcharging the government for their services.

Will Mark Hurd Become Oracle's Next CEO?

Consider: Larry Ellison is 66 and Hurd is 54, plus Hurd has plenty of experience running a tech company much larger than Oracle. So, it seems likely that the Hewlett-Packard castoff -- now an Oracle co-president -- is destined to take over once Ellison decides to move on.

Former HP CEO Mark Hurd May Join Oracle

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, who was forced out of the company after sexual harassment charges were brought against him, is said to be in talks to join Oracle, the world's largest enterprise software company.

Oracle's Larry Ellison Takes the CEO Cake

Larry Ellison of Oracle tops The Wall Street Journal's new list of the 25 highest-paid CEOs of the last decade. Ellison's total compensation over the last 10 years, including salary, bonus, stock and stock option grants, was $1.84 billion.

Oracle Profit Jumps 25% to Beat Street Estimates

Enterprise software giant Oracle reported a 25% rise in fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, helped by strong sales of new licenses and market share gains at the expense of the company's chief rival SAP.

Three Stocks Set to Gain Strength on Euro Weakness

As European markets sell off, there are bargain stocks to be found overseas. We screened for beaten-down, big-cap multinationals in the eurozone (trading on U.S. exchanges) that should benefit from currency weakness.

Oracle's Larry Ellison Is Highest-Paid CEO of 2009

It may not be big money by hedge-fund compensation standards, but billionaire Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, topped the rankings of the highest-paid CEOs for 2009 with $84.5 million in total compensation, significantly more than the No. 2 executive on the list.

Oracle Doubles Down on Sun Bet with Hiring Spree

The conventional wisdom was that Oracle would cut jobs when it finally completed its buyout of Sun Microsystems. But Oracle's offbeat founder Larry Ellison is flouting convention again, instead announcing plans to hire 2,000 people to create and market large computer systems.

EU Approves $7.4 Billion Oracle-Sun Merger

The European Union's support of Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems didn't come as a big surprise, but it is a key moment for the industry -- especially for Sun, the fourth largest maker of server computers.