IBM makes a timely buy

Article Excerpt

IBM $193.55 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $200.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.0%; www.ibm.com) continues to expand its cloud computing businesses. Cloud computing involves storing data and software on one or more centralized computer networks. Users access these programs or files over the Internet or through some other computer network. IBM recently paid an undisclosed sum for Cloudant, a private firm that creates large databases on remote servers. IBM feels Cloudant’s technology will also enhance its analytics services, which help businesses analyze large amounts of data and improve their efficiency. That’s a big growth area. The company expects its cloud revenue to reach $7 billion in 2015. That’s equal to 7% of its overall 2013 revenue of $99.8 billion. IBM is a buy. buy…