In terms of estimates, 3Com did well. The market was expecting 5 cents per share. The analyst community was obviously worried that the recession was going to hamper profit growth more than it did. Of course, who could blame the analysts, right? After all, 3Com did see a better than 8% slide in top-line sales.

Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is looking to extend the reach of its Kindle -- a wireless reading device -- into the hands of consumers, and hopes that cutting the price will speed adoption in a price-sensitive world. Formerly priced at $359, the Kindle will now be sold for $299, though the more advanced Kindle DX will still maintain its $489 price tag.

Amazon, known mainly for selling books online before branching out into other areas, has made the Kindle a focal point of creating new growth for the site. The company has been offering generous 10% payouts via its affiliate program for creating sales, compared to the typical 4% paid on other items. A June 30 research report from Cowen & Co. obtained by DailyFinance estimated that 800,000 Kindle units had been sold so far; the company estimates that more than 2.6 million will be sold by the end of 2010.

Tech giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), long shunned by investors who sought out more aggressive growth opportunities, is gaining support from a number of observers who believe the shares are not only relatively safe, but a bargain at current levels.

As was noted in yesterday's Analyst Action Round-up, Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "Conviction Buy," with analyst Sarah Friar raising her price target to $29 on expectations that the company's next set of offerings will be innovative and well-received winners. Friar also believes that search is back in play, with Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) near monopoly there threatened by a surprisingly successful Bing.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) had a weak Q2. According to the earnings release that was issued on Tuesday after the close of trading, revenues declined 3% on an adjusted basis.

If you strip out currency effects, then you get a gain of 3% on the top line. Either way, I'm not excited. And here's something else that wasn't so thrilling. Earnings per share on an adjusted basis came in at 86 cents. Last year at this time, Hewlett-Packard generated 87 cents per share. Not a great comparison.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) reported Q2 numbers earlier in the week. They were dismal, to say the least. According to Jon Ogg's Closing Bell on Wednesday, the semiconductor business saw its top line reduced by 50%, and the adjusted loss came to 10 cents per share. Yes, yes, that met expectations. So what? The article also mentioned that the solar operation wasn't doing so hot.

Looking through the actual earnings release, I don't see a lot of things that would make a shareholder happy. Backlog was down. Applied Materials had to use cash to keep things going over the last six months (obviously investors would rather see cash generated from operations). And CEO Mike Splinter described the current climate as very tough in terms of customer demand.

Back in 2002 to 2003, Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) CEO, Larry Ellison, realized that the tech industry was maturing -- and the best strategy would be to engage in aggressive mergers & acquisitions (M&A). It was certainly prescient.

However, other major tech operators have been slow to the game. Just look at Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). While the company has struck some deals -- such as for EqualLogic in 2007 -- the activity has been muted.

Tech investors will be looking forward to seeing how Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) made out in the third quarter. The networking entity, whose colleagues include Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), will be reporting Q3 numbers on Wednesday, May 6, after the market closes. According to analysts, Cisco is not expected to grow the bottom line. The call is for 25 cents per share. If that figure is hit, then it will represent a drop of more than 30% on a year-over-year basis.

Here's the bright side, though. Cisco has beat the analysts at their game in recent times. Quite frankly, I think Cisco should be able to come ahead of estimates this week. I don't necessarily see why the trend will break. It's not like the stock has been telling the market that it will. Shares of Cisco have been doing well.

• Earnings beat expectations. RVBD reported EPS of 13 cents vs. consensus of 10 cents. The revenue number was also higher.
  
  
• Several brokers have enthusiastically raised their targets for RVBD. Lazard Capital raised the price target from $14 to $17, and Wedbush and William Blair upgraded the stock.
  
  
• The percentage of float shorted was 21% at the beginning of April. This stands out as the most interesting piece of data for a trader like me. Given the ignition provided by the good earnings announcement, wouldn't the shorts rush to cover?

• Citigroup upgraded shares of Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LRY) to Hold from Sell to reflect the company's capital raises and progress on leasing over the past quarter. The firm raised their target price to $21 from $16.
  
• UBS upgraded shares of Lonmin (Other OTC:LNMIY) to Neutral from Sell as they believe Xstrata may make an offer for the company.
  
• Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded RadiSys (NASDAQ:RSYS) to Buy from Hold after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and provided Q1 guidance which the firm believes indicates that fiscal 2009 results will be better than expected. The firm set a target of $8.50.
• Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and PG & E (NYSE:PCG) were raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
  
• Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was upgraded at Baird to Outperform from Neutral.

Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), which competes with Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), reported Q1 numbers after the bell on Wednesday. The data continue to show that all is not well with the world.

Demand for Qualcomm's products is down, and as far as management is concerned, earnings visibility just isn't in the cards due to the financial mess and its effect on the company's marketable securities. Talk about not inspiring confidence.

For the first quarter, Qualcomm delivered pro forma earnings per share of $0.31. That represented an ugly drop of 40% on a year-over-year basis. Revenues inched up 3% to $2.5 billion. The top line beat expectations, but the bottom line didn't come anywhere close as Wall Street was counting on $0.47 per share. Then again, what did any of us expect? It's tough out there in the world.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported Q4 numbers on Thursday after the market closed up for the day. Revenues increased 18% to $5.7 billion and GAAP income fell by a lot, coming in at $1.21 per diluted share versus $3.79 per diluted share in the year-ago period. However, after adjusting for various charges, the bottom line comes out to $5.10 per diluted share. Referring to the Before the Call piece, I see that this performance was good for growth of 15% and was good for a beat of analyst views by $0.15.

Not bad. Google may not be growing like it used to do in the old days, but I thought its Q4 came out pretty good, all things considered. Operational cash flow for the year increased by 36% (gotta love that). Free cash flow for the year was nearly $5.5 billion. As can be seen, Google held up well during the difficult climate, as its online ad model apparently was healthy. However, I have to point out something that I'm not a huge fan of: management is exchanging worthless employee options for fresh ones. Uh, what's the point of stock options in the first place? Aren't they supposed to be financial incentives for employees? What can you do, I suppose, but this is why I sometimes wish that options as compensation would just go away.

So, Google is holding up, and it beat estimates. Even though the stock has perked up as of late, I'm not inclined to buy it at these levels. I certainly wouldn't buy it on today's modest rally of 5.5% (that was the stock's performance as of this writing). Google is the giant in search, and it offers tough competition to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). But I think the next several quarters could be tough for the tech entity, and I'd rather get more data before deciding what to do with Google as a potential investment idea. I just don't feel in a rush to do anything about the stock currently.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change without notice.

IBM (NYSE: IBM), whose tech colleagues include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), is set to report earnings for Q4 on Tuesday, January 20. One of the more exciting attributes that IBM can claim this earnings season is that it isn't a financial company. You don't want to be invested in those things, to be sure. So many observers will be looking forward to seeing exactly how IBM is handling the recession, because even though it isn't a financial entity, it's still affected by what's going on around it (and us, for that matter).

Estimates can vary depending on the source, but according to Earnings.com, Wall Street is looking for somewhere around $3.03 per share. If it hits this number, many will probably be singing the company's praises, because that would represent high single-digit growth on the bottom line of approximately 8%. Hey, as long as profits are growing, you can relax, at least a little bit.

As we all know, though, an earnings beat would be so much better. IBM has a great track record of beating estimates, according to the link. So I would expect that we will see IBM go beyond expectations this Tuesday. Furthermore, looking into the recent past, IBM had a great third quarter. Diluted earnings per share were up 22%, as this piece by Douglas McIntyre mentions. Douglas also highlighted the incredible strength and diversity of the IBM business model. Indeed, it doesn't just sell software, it sells services, too. It's got a great brand, and it tends to do well with its margins. So, yes, I think IBM has what it takes to whip the analysts yet again and to report good numbers.

However, I would not be a buyer ahead of the report. Why take the risk in this trading environment? Clues to the company's outlook will essentially influence the tape, so you'll have to follow the conference call and evaluate management's comments carefully to see whether you want to buy-in after the earnings release. IBM is definitely a solid long-term idea. And is it cheap? I'd say so. Elizabeth Harrow recently made a positive argument in terms of Big Blue's valuation. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of traders will be setting themselves up ahead of the numbers. They probably will turn out to be correct. But I think the idea that IBM is cheap may not mean much in the context of an increasingly bad news flow. I just haven't jettisoned my overall bearish stance just yet, and it's been influencing my trading.

One thing's for sure: IBM is not a short-sell candidate ahead of the release. That I can state unequivocally. So, as for me, I'll just enjoy reading the earnings report without the pressure of having a position in IBM on at the time.

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