Even in the California-nice cubicles of Silicon Valley, the end of the quarter brings shouty bosses, bursting blood vessels, and migraines. And when the end of the quarter falls on a Friday, it's especially rough: Clients have a way of making themselves scarce right as you're trying to close a deal. Add to that stress the ennui of the inevitable corporate kumbaya sessions, like Yahoo's management meeting today. It's enough to launch anyone into desk rage. So let us know — is your boss looking ready to explode? Or is the office eerily quiet — the calm before a layoff storm? Drop us a line and let us know what we can expect from the next round of quarterly earnings. We don't want to have to wait for the SEC filings to find out. (Graphic by CNN.com)

Oracle's earnings have beaten Wall Street's expectations, suggesting that the turmoil in credit markets has not had an impact on tech bellwethers. Score one for VC blogger Paul Kedrosky, who has cast tech stocks as a safe haven in today's market. [Associated Press]

Vivendi announced that its Universal Music Group unit's digital music sales during the first half of 2007 have doubled over the past year. Despite that, it ran a $102 million loss. World of WarCraft, Vivendi's popular online game, boosted the company's videogames divisional profit to $162 million, almost double the same period last year. [PaidContent]

Technology publisher Ziff-Davis continues to struggle financially. Second-quarter earnings fell 29 percent to $16.5 million compared to the previous year. [PaidContent]

These days, LookSmart, the money-losing San Francisco-based search-advertising company, is better known as successful landlord to startups than a successful business. No wonder that CEO David Hills has resigned, ostensibly to start his own, less troubled concern. But his timing couldn't be worse. Just last month, LookSmart promised investors Hills would be on today's earnings call. Word of his resignation came yesterday. And yet he apparently submitted his walking papers on July 26. Why did LookSmart delay such critical news for so long? And what does Hills know about today's earnings call that made him so reluctant to participate?

Apple's stock was up more than two bucks to close at $137.26 today, as the company gets set to report June-quarter earnings. Investors have recovered somewhat from the revelation that AT&T activated fewer iPhones in the last couple days of June than some on Wall Street hoped for. With only two days of sales, no one expects the iPhone to contribute much to sales. MarketWatch states the obvious: Mac and iPod sales will make up for most of Apple's sales for the quarter, which analysts think will come in at around $5.2 billion. Nonetheless, the cell phone, as Apple's big growth opportunity, will be the focus of everyone's attention. I covered the call live, blogging the highlights here. On the call: CFO Peter Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook. CEO Steve Jobs usually doesn't show for these things, and he didn't tune in for this one, either, even with all the iPhone buzz.

The second-quarter results from the New York Times Company just came out, and they're kind of grim. Operating profit decreased to $43.3 million—last year, same quarter, it was $86.2 million. Earnings per share decreased to $.15 per share; same period last year, it was $.37. But why? Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson said that the results "reflected the weakness in the print advertising market stemming from both secular and cyclical forces in our businesses." Ooo, good, cyclical! That means there'll be an upturn—or at least less stress?—next quarter? Uh, right?

Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan. Or so the saying goes. Google's second-quarter earnings — how to put this delicately? — sucked. At least compared to Wall Street's predictably overhyped expectations. Profits rose 28 percent, but that wasn't enough, and the stock fell 5 percent in after-hours trading, which means someone's got to take the fall. I dialed into Google's conference call, and listened closely to who did most of the talking. When it's bad news, the chief financial officer usually gets stuck with the unpleasant job, and sure enough, that's what happened, with CEO Eric Schmidt quickly handing the call over to CFO George Reyes and flipping tough questions to his colleagues. That tells me even Google insiders thought it was a bad quarter, too. Also on the call: Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and top executives Jonathan Rosenberg and Omid Kordestani.

Like a summer-fair wrestler extricating himself from a sweaty sumo fatsuit, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang is finding himself in a sticky situation. Yahoo's second-quarter earnings have come out. Without much of a track record as a manager, and an exceedingly short tenure as CEO, it's hard for Yang to take credit for any successes. But having hastily replaced former CEO Terry Semel, he's a handy target for shareholders looking for someone to blame. I listened in to today's earnings conference call and blogged live, after the jump, as Yang gave his first accounting of himself as CEO. Also on the call: President Sue Decker and CFO Blake Jorgensen.

Late this morning, New York Times Co. executives—not Mr. Pinch Sulzberger, though!—spoke on a conference call about the company's first-quarter results. We learned a thing or two! For one, we can look forward to additional issues of glossy T Beauty (doesn't that sound like a Boston light rail lady-pageant?) and real-estate magazine Key this year. Also, if you are one of the lucky 100,000 high-income households in (speaking of!) Boston and the surrounding area, you just may receive an issue of Fashion Boston, which we assume is kind of like T but made more boring for the Boston market.