IBM $148.46 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 960.0 million; Market cap: $142.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.8%; www.ibm.com) recently acquired several assets from The Weather Company. These include its Internet properties, brands and mobile phone apps. It does not include the Weather Channel cable TV service.
IBM plans to use its Watson supercomputer technology to analyze the data collected from over 195,000 Weather Company stations. This will let it create and sell customized local weather forecasts.
Called “Deep Thunder,” this new service will help businesses adapt to weather patterns. For example, it would help retailers avoid overstocking seasonal goods due to unusually high or low temperatures.
IBM is a buy.