SiliconBeat

Intel, the world’s largest maker of chips and Silicon Valley’s second largest company, released results for its second quarter that pleased Wall Street and set an at least initially positive tone to earnings season for technology companies.

The company was flush enough with cash to spend $2.5 billion in its 2008 second quarter buying back 109 million of its own shares, according to its earnings press release Tuesday. The repurchases helped the company boost its already impressive 25 percent year-over-year gain in net income to 27 percent on a per-shares basis.

Based on the rounded numbers Intel used in describing its second quarter buys of its own stock, it looks as if Intel paid roughly $22.94 to buy back each share. That was about 20 cents higher than average trading price during the quarter for Intel shares, which reached as as low as $20.69 in mid April to as high as $25 in mid-May.

The company also helped boost its margin by shedding 2,800 employees, or 3.3 percent of its workforce, during the quarter, ending with 81,800 employees.