Maria Bartiromo's Investor Agenda

Published: Monday, 2 Nov 2009 | 2:03 PM ET

Text Size

I would be lost with out my BlackBerry, which continues to help me be more productive every day, allowing me to do so much at once from anywhere in the world.

And I know I am not the only one.

I’ve been hearing more about the trend away from personal computers to cell phones that can do just about anything. Consider that there are now four billion cell phones in the world compared with fewer than one billion PCs.

In fact, IBM

IBM loading...

Quote  |  Chart  |  News  |  Profile

[IBM  Loading...      ()   ]has gotten out of the “commodity PC business” altogether. I talked with Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano not long ago, and he pointed out how his business has been transformed from primarily a hardware company to a software company—91% of revenues now come from services software.

The company made a strategic decision to move away from PCs, and Sam now sees the future of IBM as a “convergence of software and services underpinned by the hardware.”

This kind of thing is happening all over.

Whether it is new technology in mobile-information delivery, healthcare, education or anything else, technological innovation continues to change businesses.

And companies will invest in technology if they believe it will transform their businesses, help them to grow and provide potential new revenue streams.

Third-quarter earnings reports from technology companies have shown revenue growth in a lot of cases, so investors looking for growth in the current environment almost have to consider tech.

A final note: IBM is one of the stocks recommended by Dan Niles in the just-released November issue of Wall Street.

Dan is Co-Chief Investment Officer at Alpha One Capital Partners and one of the best technology analysts I know.

He told us that IBM is trading at a nearly 20% discount to the S&P 500, and he expects the company will do well as corporate demand picks up relative to consumer demand, which he believes could remain challenging. (Click here to join Wall Street today and read Dan’s full analysis.)

_____________________________

• The Dow 30 in Real Time
• The CNBC Stock Blog

_____________________________

Questions?  Comments? Write to

Print

Email

Text Size