By Benjamin Pimentel

The tech sector edged lower early Monday as shares of Dell Inc. fell on news that the PC giant was buying Perot Systems.

Dell (DELL) lost about 3.6% in early trading after announcing the $3.9 billion deal in an apparent bid to match rival Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) reach in the corporate tech market by boosting its information technology services portfolio.

"The three most important words for buyers and sellers of technology products are 'services, services, services,'" Gary Beach, publisher emeritus of CIO Magazine, which is geared to chief information officers.

"Dell's deal for Perot is a counterpunch to H-P's acquisition of EDS," he added, referring to H-P's purchase of the IT services giant. "In the tech world, only the 'strategic' will survive. Dell needed a ramped up services offering to remain strategic with global CIOs."

Shares of Perot Systems (PER) soared more than 65%. H-P was down about 0.7%.

Overall, the tech sector was off to a weak start as the Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) fell 0.5% 2,121 in opening minutes of the session. The Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) was down 0.7%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) lost 0.4%.

Also in the red were Apple Inc. (AAPL), Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).

Among the gainers were Google Inc. (GOOG), SanDisk Corp. (SNDK) and Novellus Systems (NVLS).

On the video game front, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) was up nearly 3% at $12.12 after the game publisher announced it was delaying the release of a racing game called "Blur" into 2010. The company said strong demand for "Modern Warfare 2" will allow it to maintain its outlook for the current year.

Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) fell nearly 5% after the company was downgraded by Wedbush Morgan to a neutral rating.

In a note to clients, analyst Michael Pachter said the company's share price "fully reflects an increasingly positive outlook and the lack of other company specific catalysts."