Investor Midday: Techs tumble

Techs took a beating at midday Friday, as the market continued to react to warnings from bellwethers. The Nasdaq plunged 101.70 points to 2,067.03, and the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 185.60 points to 10,672.65.

Shares of eBay (ebay) slumped $5 to $34.13, after Lehman Brothers analyst Holly Becker issued a pessimistic note about the company's future.

Supply-chain software maker i2 Technologies announced plans to acquire RightWorks, a maker of procurement software, in a deal worth around $114 million. The news shook up the business-to-business marketplace with speculations that it could lead to a price war. i2 was off $2.31 to $19.13, Commerce One slipped $2.38 to $11.25, Ariba fell $1.75 to $11.88 and PurchasePro dropped $1.44 to $10.50.

Analysts worried that bad news from Intel could be a sign of weakness in overseas markets. The company lowered revenue estimates for the first quarter Thursday and announced it would trim 5,000 jobs. Intel (intc) fell $3.56 to $29.69. AMD dropped $2.25 to $23.75.

The Securities and Exchange Commission may be probing a sale of stock by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. The New York Times reported that the probe centers on stock sold by Bezos in early February just before a Wall Street firm released a negative research report on the company.

Among other leading tech issues: Cisco dropped $2.19 to $20.63, and Microsoft was down $2.50 to $56.75. IBM fell $6.17 to $100.30, and Sun Microsystems lost $2.06 to $18.25.

ZDNet Inter@ctive Investor staff and Reuters contributed to this roundup.