But the company's outlook fell short of expectations. The company said it expects to generate $750 million to $770 million in revenue for the fiscal year. Analysts on average were expecting $772.9 million for fiscal 2012.

On the software side, the story continued for CA: some good quarterly numbers, but a soft outlook. CA, spurred on by strong growth in North America as demand grows for cloud-based computing and virtualization products, on Thursday reported a 5 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to $1.19 billion, in line with analysts' expectations.

Net income jumped to $211 million from $188 million. Excluding one-time charges, CA 's EPS (earnings per share) was $0.56, edging out analyst estimates of $0.52. The company forecast fiscal 2013 revenue of $4.85 billion to $4.95 billion, but analysts expected company sales to be $5.01 billion. Shares slumped by $0.26, trading at $26.02 in early Friday trading.

BMC Software, reporting Wednesday, said quarterly sales were $564.7 million, up slightly from the year-earlier figure of $562.2 million. The company beat analyst forecasts for $561.4 million. Profit declined to $71 million from $123 million a year earlier. EPS excluding one-time items was $0.74, below analyst forecasts of $0.80 per share.

However, BMC had a more upbeat outlook than other major players this week and was rewarded with a boost to its share price.