Oracle's plan to drag its legal fight against rival SAP's defunct TomorrowNow subsidiary through a second trial is not surprising, analysts said Tuesday.

Tech stocks looked strong Friday morning on the back of a week of upbeat surveys on small business and online spending, positive news about enterprise hardware and hopeful reports on U.S. employment and the European debt crisis.

WASHINGTON -- The IT industry shed employees last year at a much faster pace than they are now hiring them, but at least the industry is hiring.

Forty-six percent of North American IT shops are planning to cut positions this year, up from 24 percent last year, with one-quarter planning to slash staff by 10 percent or more, according to a newly released study by Computer Economics.