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.

The earnings season crunch is upon us once more, and among those reporting next week are Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

In its second quarter report in July, Intel reported earnings per share of 22 cents, beating Wall Street's expectation by three cents. In fact, Intel has beat analysts' expectations in the past four quarters, and also has had one-year earnings per share growth of 32 percent, which was better than the S&P 500 and the semiconductor industry average. For the third quarter, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect Intel to report EPS of 30 cents -- profit growth of 35 percent and revenue growth of 10 percent -- which is in line with Intel's updated guidance.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial recommend buying INTC: 15 rate it a strong buy, 16 a buy, and only 7 a hold. The share price is trading near its 52-week high of $26.58, up from a 52-week low of $18.75 in March. The share price closed Friday at $25.55.

For more on what's been going on with Intel, check out BloggingStocks' Intel coverage.

Over the past few years, private equity firms have shown an appetite for mega deals -- and even riskier sectors, such as semiconductors.

A prime example is the $17.6 billion buyout of Freescale. The buyers included Blackstone Group, Carlyle, Permira Advisers, and the Texas Pacific Group.

Well, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal [a paid service], the deal may show the inherent risks of the new approaches to private equity. That is, Freescale has posted weak financials lately. A big problem as been the slowdown from its major customer, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT).

Of course, the private equity sponsors understood the volatile nature of the semiconductor industry. They also realized that the debt markets were carefree with lending money. As a result, there is about $1.5 billion in Freescale debt that is variable. This means that the company can defer payments (kind of nice, huh?).

This is fine so long as the company eventually comes back. But, history is not so kind to semiconductor companies and there is certainly a good amount of competition. Another nice feature: Freescale can call on $750 million in new loans at any moment.

No doubt, it's good to be in the private equity business. Although, as for those holding debt in these deals, it does look fairly risky.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.