International Business Machines (IBM) plans to lower costs for its clients via its offerings, which is posing a major challenge to businesses due to the difficult economic scenario.   Thus IBM released new IT Asset Management software to help companies manage the costs brought on by the proliferation of IT assets such as mobile devices, laptops, printers, switches, sensors and billions of interconnected devices.  The software also helps control the complexity of software licensing and increased pace of compliance audits.   The company expects software license reuse and audit exposure savings of $3 million in 2009 and $5 million annually starting from 2010 if a company implements a software license management program using IBM’s IT Asset Management software.   In order to reduce cost, IBM announced research collaboration with the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA Ireland) to develop and expand its Risk Management Analytics capabilities in Ireland....

XsunX, Inc. announced that it was spotlighted in a two-page article in the “Innovation” section (Pages 18-19) of the August 28 edition of RECHARGE Magazine. The article detailed the company’s new cross-industry technology that combines state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies from the Hard Disc Drive (HDD) industry with proven thin-film solar processes, using the excess production capacity of the HD industry to manufacture high-efficiency, low-cost CIGS solar cells.

The piece reported on the company’s unique approach to commercialization of CIGS cells stating, “The notion of mass production of small CIGS cells runs against the grain of thin-film industry convention, which continues to push ahead with large-area manufacture substrates and roll-to-roll deposition methods. XsunX, by contrast, believes a small system footprint will result in a higher yield production.”

Tom Djokovich, chief executive officer of XsunX, Inc., commented, “The truth is that the pressure of the credit freeze last year gave birth to this unique

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 10, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights 3M Company (MMM) as the Bull of the Day and Genzyme Corp. (GENZ) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Biogen Idec (BIIB), Elan Corp. (ELN) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are initiating coverage on 3M Company (MMM) with an Outperform rating and $80 target price. The company's second-quarter results benefited from the recovery in short development cycle businesses such as consumer electronics.

The company is aggressively managing its cost structure with a gradual improvement in gross margin. Meaningful uptake has yet to be seen from most major demand industries like automotive, manufacturing, general industrial and housing.

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The Zacks Rank Buys featured in this article are: URS Corp. (...