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A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Fairchild Semiconductor — The company agreed to be bought by rival chip maker ON Semiconductor or $2.4 billion cash, or $20 per share. Fairchild had closed at $17.88 per share Tuesday.

ConAgra Foods — ConAgra announced plans to split into two separate publicly traded companies, one dealing with consumer food brands, the other with ConAgra's food service business.

Lowe's — The home improvement retailer earned 80 cents per share for the third quarter, 2 cents above estimates. A same-store sales increase of 4.6 percent for Lowe's exceeded analyst estimates of a 4.2 percent increase.

Staples — The office supplies seller matched forecasts with quarterly profit of 35 cents per share, though revenue was slightly below analyst forecasts.

PMC-Sierra — The back-and-forth battle for the chipmaker took another turn as Microsemi raised its bid again, this time to $12.05 per share in cash and stock. PMC-Sierra originally had a deal to be bought by Skyworks Solutions and the two bidders have moved to outbid each other several times since then.

Apple — Apple was added to the "conviction buy" list at Goldman Sachs, which notes that Apple is trading at a 30 percent discount to the S&P 500's average multiple. Goldman adds that the market is not necessarily recognizing Apple's increasing emphasis on service revenue.

Norfolk Southern — Canadian Pacific sent a more than $28 billion takeover proposal to combine the two railroad operators. The offer is valued at $94.95 per share in cash and stock, 9 percent above Norfolk Southern's current price. The company said it would evaluate and consider the offer.

TiVo — TiVo announced that CEO Tom Rogers would step down on January 31 after 11 years, but will continue as non-executive chairman. The maker of digital video recorders has formed a search committee to find a successor to Rogers. (Disclosure: CNBC parent Comcast is an investor in TiVo.)

Bob Evans Farms — The restaurant operator has named restaurant industry veteran Saed Mohseni as its new Chief Executive Officer. His predecessor, Steve Davis, resigned last December under pressure from activist investor Sandell Asset Management.

Citrix Systems — Citrix will spin off its GoTo software business as a separate public company, and also said it would cut about 1,000 jobs. The company has been under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management to sell assets and restructure.

Jack In The Box — The company earned an adjusted 62 cents per share for its latest quarter, missing estimates by 3 cents, and its revenue fell short as well. However, the restaurant chain issued better than expected guidance for fiscal 2016, on better pricing and stronger results from its Qdoba Mexican Grill chain.

Motorola Solutions — The communications solutions provider increased its quarterly dividend by 20 percent to 41 cents per share.

Wells Fargo — Wells Fargo named Timothy Sloan as president and chief operating officer. The move is considered by analysts to put Sloan first in line to eventually succeed the bank's current chief executive officer, John Stumpf.

JPMorgan Chase , Royal Bank of Scotland — The two banks are under scrutiny from federal prosecutors, according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper said prosecutors are pursuing criminal cases against executives from the two banks, involving mortgage securities sold ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.

Synopsys — Synopsys aid its computer systems had been the victim of unauthorized access. However, the software company said no customer project of design data had been accessed.

Alphabet — The company's Google unit unveiled a new, simpler version of its Google Plus service, hoping to attract more users.

Comcast — Comcast dropped the YES Network from its offerings after the NBCUniversal parent and YES owner 21st Century Fox failed to come to a new carriage agreement. (Disclosure: NBCUniversal is a parent of CNBC.)