A race has broken out for Data Domain Inc (NASDAQ: DDUP). NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) offered $1.5 billion for the company two weeks ago, and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) decided it had to get in on the action, upping the ante to $1.8 billion yesterday. Data Domain shares gained 16% on the news in late trading yesterday, resulting in EMC's bid carrying a 17% premium.

EMC sees Data Domain as its ticket into the market for software-based storage management, as the target company's products help reduce the amount of disk space needed to store data. With large, high-profile clients like AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and the U.S. Defense Department, Data Domain was able to double its top line to $274 million in 2008. It pulled in net income of $21.6 million last year, up from a loss of $3.7 million in 2007.

Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) late Thursday announced first-quarter earnings, excluding items, of a nickel per share, matching the Street's expectations. A year ago, the chipmaker earned 24 cents per share. Quarterly revenue fell 34% to $521.4 million, far short of last year's $804.8 million but better than the consensus estimate.

Unfortunately for Marvell, the revenue expectations on the Street were actually higher, calling for "anywhere from $530 to $540 million," which is "why, when revenue came in at $520 million, although it was better than guidance, it was below the whisper expectations," Barclay's Capital analyst Romit Shah explained.

This post was written by Minyanville Contributor Smita Sadana.

A stock that I am keenly watching today is Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD), which is up in this down market. Minyans might remember that we had concluded a successful long trade in this stock. For more please see my note on April 24th.

Here are some thoughts on the new technical picture:

Shares of health care giant Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) have been selling off in after hours trading, following the company's first quarter earnings announcement.

As we discussed in our earnings preview, analysts had been looking to see the company show first quarter earnings of 2 cents per share, but the company surprised to the upside, with a reported 11 cents per share. Despite this good news, the stock has dropped around 3.5% in after hours trading.

Earnings season is getting into full swing and semiconductor giant Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) will be in line to tell investors just how well it was able to cope with the current recession tomorrow.

The chip maker is expected to show a sizable drop in earnings, with an expected 2 cents a share for the quarter. This compares with 25 cents a share that it was able to report for its first quarter last year.

Shareholders of Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) are certainly having a good afternoon, as the stock has surged over 20% in after hours trading following stronger than expected quarterly earnings.

As Latif Lewis pointed out in this earnings preview, RIMM was expected to show earnings of 84 cents per share for its fiscal fourth quarter. This afternoon, the company shattered those estimates by posting earnings during the quarter of 90 cents per share.

Reportedly, PC giant Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is "studying" Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system as it tries to determine if the software will work well with its computers. HPQ is examining the system's computing and communications functions, although a company spokeswoman would not comment on the possibility of HPQ shipping Android-powered products.

If we see an Android alliance between the two companies, HP could sell netbooks (miniature laptops) pre-loaded with the Android. Such an alliance could be a boon for Google, as it has tried to convince PC makers to load the Android in notebooks in an attempt to allow users to share data between netbooks and phones.

Late yesterday, chip maker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) announced a countersuit against Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), as the two quarrel over what should be covered by a license agreement reached in 2004. NVDA's suit is in a Delaware Chancery Court, and it alleges that INTL breached a license agreement wherein the two companies had access to each other's technologies.

The dispute began a month ago, as INTC filed a motion against NVDA (in the same court), noting that the agreement didn't allow NVDA to make chipsets with certain INTC chips. NVDA has dismissed this notion, claiming that INTC is blocking them from "making use of the very license rights that they agreed to provide."

This post was written by Minyanville contributor Sean Udall. Sean holds position in RIMM, VMW, SUPX.

• Goldman Sachs upgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM)saying to buy in front of EPS. I couldn't agree more and in fact was going to say that today. Be that as it may, I doubled my RIMM long into yesterday's weakness and plan to hold into/through EPS report. My quick take is that RIMM could have one of the better reports relative to all the negative analyst actions and commentary in tech and the overall market.
  
  
• One of my themes for this upcoming EPS season is to look for stocks that have had the most negative analyst commentary coming into the quarter, as no one these days is looking at things like Price/Sales, Price/Book or Price to normalized earnings.
  
  

Investment bankers are suing their employer for millions in unpaid bonus commitments. Apparently, they did not get the memo on the economy. Meanwhile, here's why Netbooks are perfect for this recession. Too bad it means dark times for Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Sentiment on Intel and Microsoft is somewhat negative. Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is reporting later today and whisper sentiment is not good. When database sales crash, so goes enterprise software.

After the market closes this afternoon, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) will report its fourth-quarter earnings. The tech firm is expected to report earnings of a penny per share on revenue of $510.9 million. However, the company pre-reported earnings on January 22, announcing negative fourth-quarter results -- forecasting revenue of $500 million to $520 million, well short of its earlier-forecast range of $690 million to $730 million.

According to SeekingAlpha, MRVL is blaming the sour earnings forecast on the "macro-economic environment." The article continues, covering Credit Suisse's beliefs for the report -- which forecast the company matching the pre-announcement figures.

Wondering which sector is performing the best during the current economic crunch? The kind folks at MarketWatch provided the answer: technology. Nick Godt notes that the sector has gained strength from "investors playing an uncertain environment as both a defensive and a cyclical sector." For the month, tech is only 1.4% lower - winning it the coveted title of the best of the worst for February. The article adds that tech was followed closely by healthcare, "the most traditional defensive sector," with a loss of 1.6%.

Semiconductor Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) had its turn in the earnings parade this afternoon, and the company put up dismal results that failed to meet analyst expectations.

Going into this afternoon's earnings report, analysts had been expecting to see the company show a loss of $0.09 per share, but the actual EPS for the quarter was a greater loss, one of $0.18 per share.

These days, most investors, executives, and economists know that there's no shortage of unpleasant news regarding the U.S. economy.

Moreover, some days it's hard to find those bright spots that we know exist amid the the snow storm of the recession. Here's one: U.S. worker productivity.

Underscoring that while there are no positives to job layoffs -- each job loss is a tragedy -- citizens and investors can at least point to the fact that the U.S. workforce is becoming more productive, and corporate efficiency is improving.

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the most successful enterprise software company in the world. It is the largest and produces the most impressive earnings. Over the last several years, it has been remarkably successful at M&A, buying up a number of relatively large firms to round out what it can offer to business customers.

Oracle's revenue has also been growing steadily, which is not something all big software companies can say.

Yesterday, Oracle laid off 500 people, which is not a huge number for the company, but it is not a good sign. According to Reuters, "Redwood City, California-based Oracle laid off the employees on Friday, trimming its force of sales consultants who advise clients on how to integrate its business management software and database programs into their operations."

It is not a terribly original conclusion to say that if Oracle is downsizing, global IT spending is slowing. But, it also means that the critical marketing message from large software companies is not working--technology makes businesses more successful and efficient in a recession.

Enterprise software companies want clients to think that software can do the work of people, that productivity can come from a machine. The is apparently a hard sell. Who wants to spend money on technology when they could save a few hundred jobs instead?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.