Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Cidara Therapeutics — Shares of Cidara surged 103% after Merck agreed to buy the company for close to $9.2 billion in cash. Merck fell 1%. Avadel Pharmaceuticals — Danish drugmaker Lundbeck offered to acquire the pharmaceutical company for as much as $23 per share, topping biotech firm Alkermes’ earlier bid, sending Avadel 19% higher. Warner Bros. Discovery — The HBO and CNN parent rose almost 3% after the Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Skydance , Netflix and Comcast are preparing bids for the media company. Warner Bros. Discovery has an initial deadline for first-round bids of Nov. 20, the Journal said, citing sources familiar with the matter. Walmart — The nation’s largest retailer fell 3% after CEO Doug McMillon said he would step down, effective Feb. 1, to be succeeded by John Furner. Robinhood — The fintech company fell 5% as investors rotated away from the technology sector amid concerns over high valuations. Robinhood reported late Thursday a 34% increase in total equity trading volume and a nearly 22% rise in option contracts trading volume on its platform from September to October. Applied Materials — The semiconductor maker fell 6% after Applied Materials gave a lackluster outlook for next year, including modest full-year revenue guidance of $6.85 billion that beat analysts’ expectations by less than 1%, according to FactSet. Applied Materials posted strong fiscal fourth-quarter results, earning $2.17 per share excluding one-time items on revenue of $6.8 billion versus Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $2.11 on revenue of $6.7 billion, FactSet data showed. Big Tech — Silicon Valley largest companies continued to weaken amid a broader selloff fueled by investor concerns over the sustainability of sky-high artificial intelligence spending. Alphabet and Meta Platforms dropped 2% and 1%, respectively. Nvidia , Intel and Palantir each fell 3%, while Tesla lost 4%. StubHub — The ticket vendor slumped 19% after reporting a third-quarter net loss of $1.33 billion , or $4.27 per share, compared to a net loss of $45.9 million, or 15 cents per share at the same time last year. StubHub blamed a one-time stock-based compensation charge. CEO Eric Baker said during a conference call that the company would not provide guidance for the current quarter. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Fred Imbert, Lisa Han and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
