Tom Taulli
California - http://taulli.com

Tom Taulli is the author of various books on finance, including The Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and Investing in IPO's (Bloomberg Press). In addition to his writing, Mr. Taulli has appeared on high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and has been quoted in the various print media sources such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and LA Times.

In bad times or good, millions of people will still buy drinks from Coca-Cola (KO). So yet again, the company posted a solid quarter, showing a 55% increase in earnings to $1.54 billion. For the whole year, earnings came to a juicy $6.8 billion, up 18%.

However, there was a drag; that is, the mature markets of the US and Europe. While the economic environment is improving, the performance is still lackluster and it looks like the recovery will be fairly slow.

UBS (UBS) was one of the hardest hit from the financial crisis, but the company is showing signs of stabilization. In the latest quarterly report, the firm posted profits of $1.3 billion. Actually, it was the first reported profit in a year.

Of course, the cost-cutting was a big help (roughly 16% of the workforce). But there was also a nice tax credit during the quarter.

The company's new CEO, Oswald Grübel, definitely understands how to turnaround financial institutions. After all, he had considerable success at Credit Suisse (CS).

Even though the economy is still sluggish, things are much better than a year ago, when it looked like the global financial system was about to fall apart. In fact, it may be a good idea to expand your business.

Keep in mind that during times of big change, there are also big opportunities. However, to take advantage of these, you really need to go beyond your own abilities. In other words, you need to think about hiring.

Unfortunately, the hiring process is scary and complicated -- with many rules and risks. But an excellent new book can help out: Hire Your First Employee (get your free copy). Actually, I had a chance to talk to the author, Rhonda Abrams.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software industry is mostly dominated by major players, such as Microsoft (MSFT) and SAP (SAP). However, because of the expense and complexity of the offerings, the recession has been tough. It's easy for companies to put off spending on ERP.

But there is one player in the space that continues to grow: NetSuite (N). In the latest quarter, the company posted revenues of $42.96 million, up from $41.40 million in the same period a year ago.

Hear the word subprime and you'll likely find many scared investors. But when it comes to DriveTime Automotive, the company has found a way to make money from this market segment -- at least for used auto sales.

And now the company has filed to go public. The offering is for up to $200 million.

Glam Media, an online content company focused on women, seems to grow in any kind of economic environment. In fact, it has shown revenue increases for the past 17 quarters.

And with the top-line poised to cross over $100 million, it only seems natural that investors have been clamoring to put money into Glam. So, this week, the company announced that it has raised $50 million from an investor group that includes Aeris Capital, Burda Digital Holding and Mizuho Capital. This puts the total amount raised at $130 million.

Based in Silicon Valley, Ustream has built a sophisticated platform that allows users to stream videos on their desktops or mobile phones. In January, the company had roughly 50 million unique users.

But of course, Ustream wants even more. So why not go into Asia?

To this end, Ustream has struck a major financing deal, led by Softbank (a major telecom operator in Japan). The round comes to $75 million, with the first tranche at $20 million. The remaining portion is an option to purchase shares in Ustream.

When it comes to snowplows and salt spreaders for light trucks, Douglas Dynamics has top-notch brands in the industry. They include Western, Fisher and Blizzard.

Now, Douglas has filed to go public. The estimated size of the offering is about $150 million.

Some of my all-time favorite movies are from James Cameron, such as the Terminator series and Aliens.

And this week, Cameron's latest creation, Avatar, has become the top-grossing movie worldwide (going beyond his 1997 blockbuster, Titanic). So far, it has taken in $1.6 billion.

In a way, Cameron is a New Age entrepreneur -- that is, combining creativity, unconventional wisdom, over-the-top optimism and good business sense (this is also the case with others in the entertainment industry, like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and even Steve Jobs).

The widely anticipated IPO for Tesla Motors is finally here. Based in Silicon Valley, the company designs and manufactures high-performance, fully electric cars. The investors include the co-founders of Google (GOOG), Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the founder is Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal.

The company's first car, which came on the market in 2008, is the Tesla Roadster. It can go from zero to 60 MHP in 3.9 seconds -- without any tailpipe emissions. On a single charge, the car can also go 236 miles. However, the price tag comes to a hefty $109,000.

Roughly a third of all mobile users download ringtones and 40% change them on a frequent basis (according to a study from Ipsos MediaCT). More importantly, ringtones are a lucrative source of revenues for mobile carriers and content owners.

To keep up the innovation, the next phase in the market is actually video ringtones. And this is the focus of Vringo, which has filed to go public.