Semiconductor company Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) reported results for the second quarter, and the stock sold off during the after-hours session on Monday. At one point shares were down 11%.

I can sort of see why this happened. It wasn't an exciting earnings release at all, especially in a bad market. First, the top line decreased by about 2% to $3.35 billion. Earnings from continuing operations on a diluted basis grew by only 5% to 42 cents per share. Operational cash flow declined by 42% to $520 million. Nope, not my kind of earnings release, let me tell you. Texas Instruments doesn't seem to have the right stuff in terms of bottom-line growth. Management pointed out that the challenging economy has led to weak demand. Also, let me add that, according to this article, the results missed estimates by two pennies.

I don't really want to own Texas Instruments here. If I had to buy a tech stock, I'd be more inclined to look at a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) or an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple also reported earnings on Monday and saw its shares slide after delivering a much stronger quarter than the one delivered by Texas Instruments. That about says it all, doesn't it?

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Rather than a blue screen of death, Dell's (NASDAQ:DELL) long-feared restatement of earnings after an SEC-mandated review turned out to be a minor $150 million bug in the system. The company announced yesterday that it is restating earnings from 2003-2006, resulting in a decrease of $50-150 million total, or 2 to 7 cents per share. The hit represents a 1.4% drop in net income.

According to the independent review of more than five million documents, the irregularities were a result of too-eager executives shuffling income and expenses, especially accrued liabilities, to achieve certain financial goals.

The issue is not over, though. A couple of troubling aspects are still to be resolved or explained. In the announcement, the company states that "The investigation found evidence that, in that timeframe, account balances were reviewed, sometimes at the request or with the knowledge of senior executives, with the goal of seeking adjustments so that quarterly performance objectives could be met." The report did not name these culprits, but they may become whipping boys and girls in the SEC's ongoing investigation.

The report also states that, "Many of the adjustments offset each other during the restatement period," meaning that quarter-to-quarter reports could have been off a great deal more, thereby skewing Dell stock market price performance. For example, the impact on the stock price due to missing quarterly projections in a down market could be greater than in an up market.

While investors can be comforted by the relatively small impact of this restatement, the SEC investigation could still offer some interesting and entertaining insights.

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW) announced today that it plans to let go a number of additional employees over the next year, in addition to the 3,700 cut loose earlier, and will take an additional $100-150 million hit for severance packages over the next several quarters. In the past year, under new CEO Jonathan Schwartz, the company has returned to profitability, albeit primarily via cost containment. BloggingStocks' Eric Buscemi recently pointed out the company's modest revenue growth in relation to improving margins.

The news comes on the heels of Sun's unveiling of the new UltraSPARC T2, which it describes as the world's fastest commodity microprocessor, a product it hopes will help reinvigorate company growth. The UltraSPARC will be sold separately, rather than as a part of Sun assemblages.

I'm guessing the timing of the announcement was planned to send a message to the market that force reduction would not come at the expense of R&D. The market remains wary, however, as SUNW stock continues to trade well below its six-month high.