The good news is that Gartner has revised its outlook upward. Companies and governments will spend $3.6 trillion on IT this year, which is more than the prior $3.4 trillion forecast, amounting to growth of 5.1 percent. Sounds great, right?

Yes, but it’s complicated, especially from the U.S. point of view. The weak dollar makes the figures look a little better than they are. In 2010, Gartner says, IT spending grew 2.2 percent, but more than half of that–1.6 percent–can be attributed to the devaluation of the dollar against other currencies. Companies and governments spending other currencies can get more dollars for their money, and so this tends to inflate the appearance of growth, Gartner’s Richard Gordon told me.

A weak dollar is generally good news for U.S. companies that do a lot of global business. U.S. products and services look more attractive to non-U.S. buyers. But in cases like this, U.S. companies end up paying more for items that get imported and for raw materials.

That’s not to say there isn’t actual growth. Gartner says spending is picking up fastest on telecom equipment, with computing hardware and enterprise software following close behind.

Spending on discretionary items like IT services and consulting is coming back the slowest. When the economic crisis hit in late 2008 and early 2009 these were the first items on the chopping block, and spending on them is only now beginning to make a comeback.

Preliminary registration figures from the Consumer Electronics Association reveal a headcount of over 120,000 attendees. That’s up roughly six percent from 113,085 last year and far more than 110,000 the CEA predicted.

A small, but not inconsequential bump, and one that suggests the industry is indeed beginning to turn the corner.

“The innovations unveiled this week at the 2010 International CES brought new optimism and opportunity to our industry and the global economy,” said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro. “This show exceeded expectations with its innovation, optimism and excitement. What a great way to kick off the new decade.”

“As semiconductor sales are increasingly driven by the performance of the overall global economy, our sales are reflecting the improved economic conditions in our world markets,” said SIA President George Scalise. “Sales increased sequentially in all geographic regions.”

Chip makers have kept inventories lean, and the holiday ramp-up in production could be extended by a few weeks, Scalise added.

Great news, coming as it does after the chip industry’s seemingly endless procession of bad. The semiconductor sector is typically among the first industries to recover ahead of a broader market turnaround. This latest report suggests we may be at the beginning of just that or at least at an inflection point where the uncertainty in consumer and enterprise technology markets that’s been such a drag on the industry begins to abate.

Welcome news, considering that back in June, SIA was calling for chip sales to fall 21 percent.

“The new forecast is brighter than our earlier projections, reflecting an improving global economy,” SIA President George Scalise said in a statement. “Unit sales of key demand drivers–including PCs and cell phones, which together account for about 60% of semiconductor demand–have been stronger than previously predicted. We remain cautiously optimistic for the longer term. The current forecast is closely tied to projections of continuing improvement in the worldwide economy.”

Third-quarter chip sales totaled $61.9 billion, down 10.1 percent from the same quarter last year, but up nearly 20 percent from the second quarter of 2009. No doubt about it, the market for chips is improving (see chart below; click to enlarge).

“Global semiconductor sales in the third quarter were above expectations,” SIA President George Scalise said in a statement. “September sales were in line with historical patterns, reflecting increased demand from end-users as they began the build for the holiday season.”

“Amid signs that we are in the early stages of recovery in the global economy,” Scalise added, “semiconductor sales continue to reflect normal seasonal patterns. Sales are running well ahead of the worst-case scenarios projected early in the year, and we are optimistic that total sales for 2009 will be better than our mid-year forecast.”

Sales are running well ahead of the worst-case scenarios? Well, I suppose any reassurance is a good one when your industry is down 10 percent year-over-year.

For its third quarter, the company posted a profit Wednesday that fell 24 percent from a year earlier but still beat expectations. Sales slipped 17 percent. The specifics: Revenue topped out at $8.16 billion, down from $9.79 billion for the same period last year but better than the $8.07 billion analysts had expected. Sales were $8.2 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $8.1 billion. Excluding one-time charges for acquisition costs, Cisco (CSCO) earned 30 cents per share, a nickel more than the Street had been looking for.

So, overall, a good report that exceeded expectations with numbers that, by any standard, are pretty damn ugly. “Cisco delivered solid financial performance despite a challenging global economy and period of evolving market dynamics,” said CEO John Chambers. “These results demonstrate our ability to drive operational excellence and manage profitability across varying economic cycles.”

One way of putting it, I suppose. Certainly investors are eating it up. Cisco shares rose on the news.

“We are preconfigured for the downturn.”

– Sun CEO Jon Schwartz, Oct. 13, 2008

Looks like Sun is “aligning its business with the global economic climate” again… The company will sack 1,500 employees this week, a company spokesperson confirmed to Digital Daily. The move is part of the restructuring plan Sun announced last November and will affect “all functions, geographies and levels.”

In January, Sun confirmed that it had laid off 1,300 employees as part of its November plan to cut 18 percent of its workforce. With this latest round of cuts, that number is pushing toward 3,000.

News of cuts comes as acquisition talks between IBM (IBM) and Sun (JAVA) continue, suggesting perhaps that IBM prefers its acquisition targets lean…

Sun’s statement on the matter in full:

Sun continues to make important choices to streamline operations and align resources to best address market opportunity and position the company for improved financial performance and long term growth. In November 2008, Sun announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model with the global economy and accelerate the introduction of compelling open source innovations. As part of that effort Sun announced a global workforce reduction of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 employees, representing approximately 15% to 18% of the Company’s global workforce. In January, layoff notifications were given to approximately 1,300 employees as part of that action.

This week, Sun can confirm that notifications are being given to approximately 1,500 as part of this effort.  Reductions are being made across all levels, including vice presidents and directors. Sun remains committed to its strategy with a consistent focus on providing innovations that enable customers to address their business needs. We continue to see great opportunities for our technologies globally and are focused on our customers and partners.

We will continue to provide updates on our progress against the workforce reduction plan as they come available.

An open-ended timetable for an employee stock sale program.

Perhaps it’s the same “open-ended timetable” Facebook’s using for that mythical liquidity event, hmm? Without a silver bullet business model and no stable revenue stream to speak of, investors were bound to question Facebook’s perceived valuation sooner or later. And, apparently that’s exactly what happened, according to Valleywag’s Owen Thomas. “Facebook’s common shares…have a value that put the whole company’s worth at around $4 billion,” Thomas explains. “Or they did. A source close to potential investors said they wanted to buy shares from employees at a lower valuation, or with guarantees similar to Microsoft’s. To reward a small number of employees who had enough shares to benefit from the program, [Facebook] would have had to give away something for nothing.”

“We had a good third quarter with strong traffic and revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business. The measurability and ROI of search-based advertising remain key assets for Google,” CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “While we are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, we will continue to manage Google for the long term, driving improvements to search and ads, while also investing in future growth areas such as enterprise, mobile, and display.”

Google shares rose some 8 percent in extended trading following the news.

The company posted Q3 revenue of $310.4 million, with profits of 48 cents GAAP, 53 cents non-GAAP, getting a lift from a lower-than-expected tax rate. The Street had been looking for $310.4 million and 45 cents.

But Linear also warned that orders fell sharply toward the end of the quarter, and that fourth quarter revenue is likely to slide as a result.

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