Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has a new champion: Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). The PC manufacturer is promoting the online sales force-enablement platform as a way to gain access to the hefty sums available in the technology services business. The deal would give Salesforce.com access to Dell's clients in the small and medium-sized business categories. Dell would sell Salesforce.com products and provide consulting services to help clients integrate the solution with their other enterprise applications. The dollars and cents of this union weren't disclosed.

Dell sees the margins of the services business and wants a piece of the action, particularly since the PC sector is low margin. Also, sales have been hit pretty hard as a result of the financial crisis. With PCs accounting for 60% of Dell's top-line, a bit of diversity isn't a bad idea. Currently, services account for only around 10% of Dell's sales.

Today was a weak day even before the leading economic indicators brought a disappointment. The dollar was strong ahead of the FOMC meeting decision this week, where the Fed is expected to give less free money but will likely hold rates firm. The good news is that despite a negative news bias from companies, the drops were not as hard as they could have been.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,778.93 -41.27 (-0.42%)
S&P 500 1,064.71 -3.59 (-0.34%)
Nasdaq 2,138.04 +5.18 (0.24%)

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Early on Monday morning, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) announced that it has agreed to buy Perot Systems (NYSE: PER) for roughly $3.9 billion. Perot is an information technology services company, which was created by former presidential candidate Ross Perot.

Dell will offer $30 per share in cash for Perot, which represents a 68% premium over Perot's Friday close. Overall, the deal is reportedly worth $3.9 billion (according to Dell). The deal is expected to close in the quarter running from November to January -- Dell's fiscal fourth quarter.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Thornburg Mortgage, Expedia and Perot Systems were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded shares of Thornburg Mortgage Inc Corp (NYSE: TMA) to Buy from Hold as they believe the stock is at an inflection point, characterized by accelerated earnings and dividend growth.
• Expedia Inc (NASDAQ: EXPE) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, as they believe the company is well-positioned to benefit from global e-travel and media opportunities, strong free cash flow, and attractive valuation.
• Perot Systems Corporation (NYSE: PER) was upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital following its Q4 report.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• HSBC raised Swiss Reinsurance Company (OTC: SWCEY) to Overweight from Neutral.
• The Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE: EL) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Lehman.
• Cantor upgraded Genomic Health Inc (NASDAQ: GHDX) to Buy from Hold.

With the market being propelled upward due to private equity and corporate acquisitions, investors should not stay on the sidelines. Rather, they should target private equity's next frontier -- IT services. Of the companies in this sector, Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS), Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE: PER) and Ingram Micro, Inc. (NYSE: IM) may be worth examining.

A few months ago, I suggested several sectors and companies that private equity could target next. On Friday, TheStreet.com reiterated one of those sectors -- IT services. Here's how much seven such companies have gone up or down since my March 29th post along with their market capitalizations ranked by their Price/Earnings to Earnings Growth (PEG) ratios:

An analyst with Jefferies & Co., Joseph Vafi, has done a buyout analysis on Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE:PER), a computer consulting firm. His conclusion: this would be an ideal candidate for a private equity firm.

He thinks the takeout value is about $20 to $21 per share (the current stock price is $16.20).

True, this is no guarantee a deal will get done, but Vafi does think the stock is cheap. After all, Perot Systems has been growing nicely -- there was a 14% increase in sales during the prior quarter. What's more, the company is selling at about 0.73X revenues, which is comparatively low.

Also, the cash flow is reliable and the customer contracts are fairly secure and long-term.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.