Greece’s strife laden efforts to form a new government sent the markets tumbling to a sharply lower open with the Dow plunging 120 points to 12,700. Nasdaq dropped 26 points to 2907.

On the upside

The Wall Street Journal reported that activist investor Carl Icahn acquired a significant stake in Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK).

Kelta will pay a premium of approximately $33.1 million to acquire Tii Network Technologies (Nasdaq: TIII).

A Seeking Alpha contributor noted that Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: KERX) was a low debt pharmaceutical with a Buy rating. 

On the downside

NBC’s cancellation of the television program “Who Do You Think You Are?” sent shares of Ancestry.com (Nasdaq: ACOM) tumbling.

InterOil (NYSE: IOC) received unofficial notice that Papua New Guinea will cancel the 2009 LNG Project Agreement.

Craig-Hallum downgraded A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) to a Sell rating.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 8 to 1 on the NYSE and by 5 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks tumbled 10 points to 779.