(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)Late on Thursday, Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) announced that its fiscal third quarter net income rose to $396.3 million, or 69 cents a share, from $370.5 million, or 65 cents a share in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Excluding one-time charges, the company earned $477.3 million, or 83 cents a share, for the period. Revenue grew 66% to $2.78 billion. Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 86 cents a share on revenue of $3 billion. Earlier, in October, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company had projected third quarter earnings between 81 cents to 83 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $2.75 billion to $2.78 billion. During the quarter, RIM unveiled three new handsets-BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm, the Pearl Flip in order to thwart competition from rival smartphone maker Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).For the current fourth quarter, RIM expects to earn in the range of 83-91 cents a share on revenue of $3.3 billion and $3.5 billion. Shares of Research In Motion added 1.43% in after hours trade on Thursday.

Software maker Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) reported that its fiscal second-quarter profit fell marginally to $1.27 billion, or 25 cents a share, from $1.3 billion, or 25 cents a share in the comparable quarter a year earlier. Revenue increased 6% to $5.6 billion. Excluding special items, Oracle earned 34 cents a share in the quarter. Analysts on average had projected earnings excluding special items of 35 cents a share, on revenue of $5.8 billion. Oracle blamed a stronger dollar for the disappointing results. Excluding the negative impact of currency impact, the company said revenue would have grown at the much faster rate of 12%. However, Oracle President Safra Catz admitted the impact of economic downturn. "Currency was not the only news going on in the quarter in the outside world," she said. Nonetheless, Catz was still optimistic. "The product and competitive position of the company is strong," she said. For the current third quarter, Redwood Shores, California based company said that the negative impact of the strong dollar will linger. The company expects to report earnings excluding special items to be between 31 cents and 33 cents a share, and revenue growth to be between 1% and 4%. Analysts on average have been expecting Oracle will report third-quarter earnings excluding special items of 35 cents a share. Shares of the company rose 2.65% in evening trade.

IT services firm Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN) said on Thursday that its first-quarter net income jumped 26% to $479.9 million or 74 cents a share from $381.3 million or 60 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago. Total revenue grew 6% to $6.02 billion, beating the consensus estimates of $5.99 billion. Operating income increased 12% to $815 million and the operating margin climbed 70 basis points to 13.5%.