The analysts believe IBM's global and recurring business model allows it to deliver strong results despite a tough macroeconomic environment. The analysts remain encouraged by IBM’s focus on more profitable businesses, such as software and services and its exit from low-margin businesses. The analysts believe IBM’s deal pipeline for both Software and Services remains healthy and expect hardware to benefit from the recent refresh of z Series, Power 7 and WebSphere across its entire portfolio in 2011. These product cycles combined with solid backlog growth, incremental cost cutting, and share buybacks will support improving revenue and EPS trends through 2011. The analysts believe IBM’s acquisition strategy will provide the Company with better leverage in the software and services market going forward. Moreover, cost containment and aggressive share buyback activity will its drive long-term earnings growth.