International Business Machines Corp.

MICROSOFT CORP., $50.13, Nasdaq symbol MSFT, is the world’s largest software provider. Its Windows operating system powers about 90% of the world’s personal computers.

This week, the company agreed to acquire LinkedIn Corp. (New York symbol LNKD) for $26.2 billion in cash....

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC., $50.92, New York symbol VZ, rose 2% this week after the company negotiated a new four-year contract with the union representing 36,000 customer service representatives and network technicians. That ended a seven-week strike.

Under the deal, these employees will receive an 11% wage hike over four years....

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG (class C non-voting), $718.77, and GOOGL (class A voting), $737.77, is the new holding company for Google’s Internet search business and its smaller, riskier operations. The company calls those smaller businesses its “Other Bets”; they sell home thermostats, high-speed Internet and digital TV services—among other tech products. In the three months ended March 31, 2016, Alphabet’s revenue rose 17.4%, to $20.3 billion from $17.3 billion a year earlier. The Google search engine business accounted for 99% of the total. If you exclude traffic acquisition costs (fees that Google pays affiliates to redirect traffic to its websites), Alphabet’s revenue rose 18.4% to $16.5 billion. On that basis, revenue just missed the consensus forecast of $16.6 billion....

WAL-MART STORES INC., $64.67, New York symbol WMT, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. However, the retailer cut its sales forecast for the current year. That caused the stock to fall 3%. In the fourth quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, which ended January 31, 2016, Wal-Mart earned $1.49 a share, down 7.5% from $1.61 a year earlier. These figures exclude costs related to the company’s recently announced plan to close 269 of its less-profitable stores and other unusual items. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus forecast of $1.43. The company’s decision to invest more in its e-commerce businesses and increase worker pay contributed to the decline. Still, those moves should reduce turnover and improve efficiency. On the revenue side, Wal-Mart also plans to expand its selection of fresh fruits and vegetables....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $121 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 970.1 million; Market cap: $117.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) recently paid $130 million for Ustream, a private firm specializing in cloud-based videostreaming services. Its clients include NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and the Discovery Channel. The purchase will help IBM with its plan to bring its analyticssoftware expertise to online video content. This will help its clients make better use of their video libraries and protect their copyrighted material. The company expects the market for cloud-based video services and software to total $105 billion by 2019. IBM is a buy....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $121 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 970.1 million; Market cap: $117.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Dividend yield: 4.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) recently paid $130 million for Ustream, a private firm specializing in cloud-based videostreaming services. Its clients include NASA, Samsung, Facebook, Nike and the Discovery Channel. The purchase will help IBM with its plan to bring its analyticssoftware expertise to online video content. This will help its clients make better use of their video libraries and protect their copyrighted material. The company expects the market for cloud-based video services and software to total $105 billion by 2019. IBM is a buy....

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WAL-MART STORES INC., $62.68, New York symbol WMT, is closing 269 of its less profitable stores; it currently has 11,600 outlets worldwide.

Of the total, 154 will be in the U.S., including all 102 of its smaller Walmart Express locations....

YUM! BRANDS INC., $72.89, New York symbol YUM, plans to spin off its operations in China as a separate firm. The company will hand out shares in Yum China to its own investors, who will not be liable for capital gains taxes until they sell. The company aims to complete the spinoff by the end of 2016. Yum China will operate 6,900 fast-food outlets under the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell banners. In the three months ended September 5, 2015, this division supplied 57% of Yum’s overall sales....

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $161 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 985.0 million; Market cap: $158.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) has developed a new computer chip with four times more transistors than current models by using a silicon-germanium base instead of pure silicon. This innovation will greatly speed up computers while using much less power. The company has sold most of its chipmaking operations over the past few years, so if this technology becomes commercially viable, IBM will license it to other manufacturers. Faster chips would also make the company’s analytics software perform better. IBM is a buy.

APPLE INC., $124.50, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, reported better-than-expected quarterly results this week. However, concerns about slowing iPhone demand and uncertainty surrounding sales of its new Apple Watch caused the stock to fall 4%. In its fiscal 2015 third quarter, which ended June 27, 2015, Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones, up 35.0% from 35.2 million a year earlier, mainly due to strong demand in China. Even so, the latest total missed the consensus forecast of 48.8 million, probably because users are waiting for the company to release a new version later this year. Earnings jumped 37.8% to $10.7 billion from $7.7 billion. Per-share profits gained 44.5%, to $1.85 from $1.28, on fewer shares outstanding. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.81....