The per-share offer for Fast Search represented a 42% premium above its Jan. 4 closing price. Microsoft was up 99 cents, or 3%, to $34.44. Network Appliance ( NTAP ) gained 2.9% after regulators approved the company's acquisition of privately held storage software maker Onaro. Network Appliance said on Jan. 3 that it had agreed to buy Onaro. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Graphics chip maker Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained $1.42, or 5.2%, to $28.89 after the stock was upgraded to neutral from sell by an analyst at American Technology Research. "The stock's recent decline now better reflects our as-good-as-it-gets thesis," said Doug Freedman in his research note. Sony undefined continued its gains from Tuesday as the company inched closer to having its Blu-ray high-definition video format accepted as the industry standard.