SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

Shares in the world’s largest chip maker rallied as much as 3 percent after hours but quickly gave up the gains. The stock had been battered over the past week after researcher IDC revealed that PC sales notched a record quarterly decline in the first quarter.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp said its current-quarter revenue would decline as much as 8 percent and trimmed its 2013 capital spending plans, as personal computer sales drop due to the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones.

Shares in the world’s largest chip maker rallied as much as 3 percent after hours but quickly gave up the gains. The stock had been battered over the past week after researcher IDC revealed that PC sales notched a record quarterly decline in the first quarter.

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – Intel Corp forecast June-quarter revenue in line with expectations and trimmed its capital spending plans as the personal computer industry grapples with falling sales and a shift toward tablets and smartphones.

Intel and personal computer makers are struggling to stop a decline in shipments as consumers hold off on buying new laptops in favor of more nimble mobile gadgets.

SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) – Nvidia Corp plans to return $1 billion to shareholders this fiscal year, the company said on Thursday, helping its shares trim earlier losses caused by worries about its mobile business and a slumping PC market.

Shares in the chipmaker were down as much as 4 percent after Nvidia told investors earlier at its annual analysts’ day that it expects its Tegra mobile processor business to remain flat this year. They recovered after the buyback news, and were down just 0.5 percent at $12.77 in the afternoon.

SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) – Nvidia Corp expects its mobile processor business to remain flat this year as it focuses on upcoming chips with high-speed LTE technology attractive to smartphone makers, the chipmaker’s CEO said on Thursday.

As consumers increasingly choose tablets and smartphones over personal computers, Nvidia has been looking for ways to diversify beyond its core business of designing graphics chips for PCs.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 10 (Reuters) – As the wrangling over
immigration reform intensifies in the U.S. Congress, the tech
industry is lobbying hard to raise the limit on H-1B visas,
which allow non-U.S. citizens with advanced skills and degrees
in “specialty occupations” to work in the country for up to six
years.

Demand is so great that the annual cap of 65,000 was hit
last week, just days after the application period opened.
Technology companies support raising the H-1B quota almost
five-fold, to 300,000, arguing universities are just not turning
out enough American math and science graduates and they need to
cast their net abroad to stay competitive.

REDWOOD CITY, California (Reuters) – Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison unveiled a new line of faster servers on Tuesday, the latest step to revive a shrinking hardware division and shore up a core software business threatened by smaller rivals.

Servers built with Oracle’s new “T5″ microprocessors have beaten several performance records and run business databases and applications much faster than previous versions, the billionaire told reporters at a launch event in Redwood City.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oracle’s severe miss in quarterly sales, dismissed by management as a blip, amplified questions on Wall Street about the business-software giant’s diminishing clout in an industry moving rapidly toward cheaper Internet-based rivals.

Senior management assured Wall Street on Wednesday that a worrying 2-percent slip in new software sales was mostly due to a sales force that lacked “urgency”, something to be addressed this quarter. Many analysts agreed, describing the decline in software and hardware revenues as a speed bump.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oracle Corp blamed its rapidly expanding sales force for a severe miss in third-quarter software sales and warned that its ailing hardware business will lose more ground this quarter, driving its shares 8 percent lower on Wednesday.

The world’s No. 3 software maker projected a 1 to 11 percent rise in new software licenses and Internet-based subscriptions in the May quarter – an indicator of future performance. But investors focused on a 2 percent slip in the February quarter that badly missed Wall Street’s targets.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oracle Corp blamed its rapidly expanding salesforce for a severe miss in third-quarter software sales and warned that its ailing hardware business will lose more ground this quarter, driving its shares 8 percent lower on Wednesday.

The world’s No. 3 software maker projected a 1 to 11 percent rise in new software licenses and Internet-based subscriptions in the May quarter – an indicator of future performance. But investors focused on a 2 percent slip in the February quarter that badly missed Wall Street’s targets.