I've received a few chuckles for investment directions I've suggested in the past, but if you care to review a couple of my previous generalities, I believe that my record has held up fairly well.

I submit for approval the following investment angles for the balance of 2008 and possibly beyond:

Have I suggested investments in water holdings? Yes, I do believe that I have. I believe that going long in water stocks could be an investment hedge of the decade. I also suggest a look into the desalination technology from General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE).

I'd think it's a good idea to stick with the railroads, such as Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI). I claim that, with all things given, for now, railroads can't fail. Conversely, I think it's a good time to back away slowly from trucking. I think misery lies ahead there.

Over the years, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has made only a handful of acquisitions. But as the company's market matures, this strategy doesn't make a lot of sense.

Well, we are seeing some signs that Dell is thinking about M&A.

This week, the company announced that it has agreed to shell out $340 million for ASAP software (in the past couple weeks, there was also a deal for Silverback Technologies).

Founded in the mid 1980s, ASAP provides IT services – helping customers "evaluate, purchase, deploy, and manage" software assets. Apparently, the company has much expertise in volume licensing.

As technologies get more complex, services become more important. So, ASAP should be a nice addition to Dell. It will also help with its competition against Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and IBM (NYSE: IBM).

According to Lindy Hanson, a senior analyst at Technology Business Research:

"Dell aims to use these acquisitions to engage with customers in new ways as of an overall effort to grow its services business. The company is building its managed services capabilities, one area it has not previously had a large presence in. I believe that, in growing its managed services business, Dell gains access to a larger pool of recurring revenue, in part from the ability to offer new services to its existing customers."

Also, to check out some more M&A transactions, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

To those who say "the PC is dead" (umm, not really), to the commodity experts who treat the personal computer market like the FCOJ or pork bellies market, where is the next decade of PC growth going to come from?

I would venture to guess, based on industry estimates, that the majority of U.S. households these days have more than one PC. For Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Lenovo, Acer and other PC makers, it's pretty well-known by now that a vast market remains untapped in areas outside the U.S.

To that end, it's been said that up to 40% of small businesses in India are expected to start investing in PC technology in the next twelve months. The trick here is that for most of these businesses, this will be the first time ever they invest in the personal computer and related markets. That's right, it's 2007 and almost half of the small business market in India is expected to engage themselves in PC technology for the first time ever.

Will this send sales execs from HP and Dell into the stratosphere? Probably not, as these individuals know their markets, customers and potential sales powder kegs just as well as anyone. For internet companies like Google and Yahoo!, opening up the possible internet-connected floodgates of India (which has a billion+ population) would be a good thing as well. PCs this day and age without an internet connection are useless for any kind of global business transactions. Yes, these smaller businesses in India may not be there yet, but in a decade, many of them will be global businesses. PC technology will help them all launch, and PC makers will be the ones seeing visions of sugar plums dancing in their own heads as those global sales continue to mount.

It looks like Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is whipping up again on competitor Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) after taking the top spot in global PC sales last year. First quarter of 2007 data indicates that HP seems to be growing very nicely while Dell is growing backwards. HP saw first-quarter PC shipments go up by 28.2% (year-over-year), taking its global market share from 16.5% to 19.1%. At the same time, Dell's global PC shipments declined by 6.9% as its market share went from 18.2% to 15.2%.

The Taiwanese PC maker, Acer, nosed in on the third spot (held by China's Lenovo Group) with 6.7% market share. Acer has made great strides in recent years and has become the fastest-growing computer manufacturer in many respects. Meanwhile, HP's retooling since Mark Hurd came on-board is showing fantastic results as of late, with HP stabilizing in sales and profit and wrestling that top crown away from Dell.

It's been interesting to watch the inversely-proportionate relationship going on between HP and Dell since 2005. While Dell held the top spot back then, chinks in its armor were starting to show -- among them, bad (bad) customer support and a stinky reputation that lingers with it to this day. HP, meanwhile, was re-engineering in order to knock Dell back down. It did precisely that in 2006 and hasn't looked back. Hurd, ever the coy CEO, knows exactly what he's doing. The only question left o Michael Dell (now CEO of Dell again) is this: Can that spicy new executive team you have lined up get Dell back on the right track?.