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.

IronPlanet, which operates an online marketplace for used construction and agricultural equipment, has been growing nicely over the past year. Revenues spiked 56% to $42.7 million and profits went from $1.9 million to $12.9 million.

Now, IronPlanet is taking things to the next level -- that is, filing for an IPO. The company expects to raise $92 million.

When it comes to electronic payments, China is still in the early stages. But in light of its huge population and fast-growing economy, the potential is enormous.

So, eBay's (EBAY) PayPal is getting aggressive in the country. For example, the company has struck a partnership deal with China UnionPay, which is the biggest electronic payments provider in China.

Over the past year, PepsiCo (PEP) has been making the right moves. Perhaps one of the biggest was to buy up its key bottlers in the U.S. so as to improve cost efficiencies, as well as to broaden the product mix. In fact, Coca-Cola (KO) also realized the logic of this strategy and is doing the same thing.

And keeping up the momentum, PepsiCo did something else to make shareholders happy. Monday, the company announced it has approved a 7% increase in its dividend and there a whopping $15 billion authorization to repurchase up to $15 billion in shares of the company.

In my columns, I usually focus on new technologies that can help boost your business. But sometimes the old-fashioned approaches can still work quite well.

Yes, this includes mailers.

OK, it's true that people still throw away much of their mail (and, it even looks like the U.S. Postal Service will cut back on its deliveries). But if a mailer is done right, you can get a nice return on your investment.

In terms of subscribers, China Mobile (CHL) is the largest mobile carrier (the base is more than 500 million). But of course, the company wants to become even bigger.

And one of the most promising markets is mobile payment. However, it can be difficult to pull this off. So, China Mobile has agreed to pay $5.83 billion for a 20% stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. The transaction was priced at a 13% discount.