For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 25, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: News Corp. (NWS), McGraw-Hill (MHP), NYSE Euronext (NYX), Thomson Reuters (TRIN) and Novartis (NVS).

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Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Dow Jones to Change Hands

Dow Jones & Co., owned by News Corp. (NWS), has started seeking potential buyers for its stock market index business, including the renowned benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Goldman Sachs has been appointed to explore strategic options for the business. News Corp. bought

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Dow Jones & Co., owned by News Corp. (NWS), has started seeking potential buyers for its stock market index business, including the renowned benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Goldman Sachs has been appointed to explore strategic options for the business. News Corp. bought Dow Jones & Co. in 2007 for $5.7 billion, and has never released any financials for the unit since its acquisition. As an independent company, Dow Jones last reported results for the first nine months of 2007, when its revenue increased 18% year over year to $101.3 million.

Market analysts believe that competitors, like McGraw-Hill’s (MHP) Standard & Poor’s, FTSE, a joint venture between the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange, MSCI Barra, Russell Indexes, NYSE Euronext (NYX), Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters (TRIN), will be interested in Dow’s index business.

The company’s stock market index business consists of 130,000 equity indices

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News Corp. is considering selling the venerable Dow Jones indexing business.

 

News Corp. is considering selling the venerable Dow Jones indexing business, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to reports posted on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site on Friday afternoon.

The Journal says that Goldman Sachs is leading the sales process, which is in the early stages and is, at this point, exploratory in nature.

Many have wondered what would become of the indexing business following News Corp.’s 2007 acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. News Corp. paid more than $5 billion for Dow Jones and its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal. The indexing piece always appeared to be an odd fit within the News Corp. structure.

According to the Journal, the indexing unit had revenues of $101 million for the nine months ending September 2007.

Dow Jones refused to comment on what it called “market rumors.”

The Wall Street Journal story

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Most products that are used every day are taken for granted in their simplicity. Turn the product on and it should work. What is involved in making that product go, especially if it is an electronic product, is rarely considered. Understanding the process of what actually makes a product work, through the use of electricity, can lead to a solid and stable investment opportunity, even if the overall concept of energy is an esoteric one.

Conolog Corp., a designer, manufacturer and distributor of electronic and electro-magnetic sub assemblies, works to supply equipment involved in converting electrical signals into mechanical energy and mechanical energy into electricity. In a simple sense, the company makes products that control and protect electricity at its basic level.

Conolog Corp. got its start manufacturing guidance and other components for the US military. Since that time the company has manufactured guidance systems and other components for some of

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Customer service calls can be an aggravating experience. Pushing buttons and getting lost in an automated system is not a new experience for most consumers. But when a person stops to consider the volume of interactions for a moment, the complexity of the issue becomes apparent. Customer service is a major portion of the world’s economy today and it appears to be getting bigger with each passing moment. An investor that can find a company which takes advantage of this complex and confusing customer service dance is an investor that may find solid long term profit.

KANA Software Inc., a customer service software developer, marketer and integrator, works to assess company customer services requirements and provide software solutions. The company assesses company needs across the entire spectrum of electronic customer service response/interactions, including e-mail, voice and personal contacts.

The company offers software products to achieve more efficient and productive interactions with a

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