Adobe this week let it be known that sales and earnings for the next quarter will likely fall short of expectations, news of which sent the software maker's stock in a free-fall.

Adobe shares sank more than 20 percent from Tuesday's close, even going so far as to hit a new 52-week low at $25.81 per share.

"We're taking a cautious approach to the guidance," Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen said during a conference call with analysts. "The U.S. back-to-school environment this time was a little weaker overall."

Education sales account for more than 10 percent of Adobe's revenue, but that's not the only factor. Adobe also cited weak sales in Japan, noting that the Japanese economy "hasn't really come out of the recession yet."

Adobe now expects fourth-quarter revenue to be in the neighborhood of $950 million to $1 billion, less than the $1.03 billion some analysts had projected.

Following a board meeting last week, VIA has come to the conclusion that it needs to cut capital to NT$5.17 billion ($153.4 million USD), a 60 percent reduction. A shareholder meeting on June 19th will decide when the reduced capital will take place.  As a result of the planned reduction, VIA said it expects shares to improve to $NT11.36, or almost three times as much as the current NT$4.50 share price.

VIA didn't say what effect the reduced capital would have on its Nano processor roadmap, which could put the heat on Intel in coming months. Citing un-named market sources, news and rumor site DigiTimes notes that demand for Intel's Atom netbook CPUs has been slowing down lately in the wake of price cuts by low-end notebooks. The sources also attributed the reduced demand to consumer anticipation of the next generation of Atom processors, currently scheduled for the second half of this year.

Few companies wouldn't mind switching places with Google, who posted a $1.25 billion profit, but when you're the undisputed champ of the online world (or if you're Dr. Evil), a measly billion dollars just isn't enough. Along with earnings per share of $3.92, the numbers aren't adding up to what analysts had predicted, leaving many to wonder if the online advertising market might be taking a turn for the worse. Google Cheif Economist Hal Varian sees it differently, saying:

"Consumers are being cautious in their online spending patterns just as they are in the offline spending. Despite the weakness in the economy, advertising seems to be hodling up remarkably well in most sectors. This illustrates the point that we've made several times that during periods of slow economic growth, the last thing an advertiser wants to cut is its spending on search-based advertising."

But Varians comments did little to assuage investors, nor did posting gross sales of $5.37 billion, marking a 39 percent improvement over one year ago and hitting analysts' estimates. The company's shares still managed to drop 10 percent to $479.70 in after-hours trading.

Given the overall growth and $12.7 billion in cash, is the panic justified?