Strong earnings from Dell and Salesforce.com, a positive report on online ad spending and two Internet IPOs this week highlighted underlying strength in the tech sector despite worries about the economy.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip and LCD panel maker, provided financial guidance for the third quarter on Thursday that showed its operating profit will fall from its all-time-high, but its sales will reach a new peak.

Intel on Tuesday reported strong earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, buoyed by strong microprocessor sales in the server segment.

Oracle reported fourth-quarter earnings of US$0.46 per share on Thursday, a 24 percent jump over the same period last year. Revenue rose 39 percent to $9.5 billion.

Windows 7 has once again kept Microsoft's balance sheet healthy. On Thursday, the company announced strong income and revenue growth for its third fiscal quarter, thanks in part to continued brisk sales of the new OS.

IBM on Monday reported first-quarter earnings of US$1.97 per share on $22.9 billion in revenue, a rise of 16 percent and 5 percent, respectively, over the same period last year.

Intel on Tuesday reported strong earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, with the company calling it the "best first quarter ever."

Chip designer Broadcom plans to pay US$160.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit over stock option accounting practices commonly called backdating after hundreds of companies were forced to restate earnings a few years ago due to the practice.

Citing improved profit margins and a stabilizing IT spending environment, IBM revised its 2009 earnings estimates upward Thursday, even as the company's revenue dropped.

IT and communications bellwethers Sprint, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Symantec this week reported sagging quarterly sales, but analysts, impressed by cost controls and hopeful that a bottom to the tech market has been reached, raised estimates on share price valuations and earnings of some vendors.

Cisco Systems' revenue for its third fiscal quarter fell 17 percent from a year earlier, while net income plunged 21 percent to US$1.3 billion, or $0.23 per share.

SAP reported first quarter net income down 16 percent year on year, and revenue down 3 percent, as customers remain reluctant to spend on new software.

Microsoft missed analyst expectations for its third fiscal quarter, blaming the most difficult economic conditions the company has faced in its history.

Research In Motion Limited (RIM) stock soared in after-market trading after the company posted solid financial results and said it sold its 50 millionth BlackBerry smartphone.

A week after Microsoft released financial earnings dragged down by its online services group, the head of its online operations, Kevin Johnson, has taken a new job at Juniper Networks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Concerns for the health of popular Apple executive Steve Jobs and a worse than expected forecast for fourth quarter earnings and revenue shot down Apple's stock after the market closed.

Cisco Systems posted solid financial results for its most recent quarter on Wednesday, but the networking giant lowered its financial forecast for the months ahead, citing a slowdown in U.S. and European markets.

Sony reported record sales and net profit for the last three months of the fiscal year on the back of strong sales in its core electronics division, it said Thursday.

SAP reported a 10 percent rise in revenue for the fourth quarter, but earnings fell 6 percent compared to a year earlier, dragged down in part by the cost of launching Business ByDesign, a new offering for the mid-market, the company said Wednesday.

EBay exceeded Wall Street's earnings and revenue expectations for its fourth quarter and, as expected, announced that Meg Whitman will step down as president and CEO at the end of March, ending a 10-year tenure at the helm of the e-commerce giant.