44 ms·

How were companies like APPL, GOOG, and MSFT perceived in the time before their stocks took off? Was it obvious to people in the industry that these companies

by cj 16y ago

How were companies like APPL, GOOG, and MSFT perceived in the time before their stocks took off? Was it obvious to people in the industry that these companies would be successful? Was it seen more of a hit or miss? Were people betting against their success?

jtbigwoo 16y ago
Amongst the people I knew (young people with no money), MSFT was seen as a sure thing from about 1990 until 2000. I dissuaded them by explaining that Linux was just around the corner to mess up that sure thing... It's a wonder I was even able to tie my shoes.
prodigal_erik 16y ago
It used to be a cliché in tech journalism that every Apple story described them as "beleaguered". They were regarded as circling the drain for years, and the stock returns here were a lot less enticing back when they were trying to survive in the computer industry.
flomo 16y ago
Apple was a complete and total mess back in 1997. Let me count the ways. - Windows 95 eradicated most of their "ease-of-use" advantage, which destroyed their profit margins - They had a string of serious hardware and software quality problems, leading people to wonder if - Their computers were seriously overpriced. (Not mildly expensive like today, but like half the specs for 150% of the price.) - Their cloning strategy had totally flopped and eradicated their margins even further. - The Newton, which was pitched as a "save the company" thing, had flopped - Apple was trying to sell itself to anyone interested, and nobody would buy - The Wall Street Journal thought there were serious accounting shenanigans going on - And unlike today, they had no consumer electronic products to fall back on. The Mac business was so fucked, it took them about 10 years before they really "fixed" it. And I don't think anyone at the time really could have predicted that Apple would become a consumer electronics juggernaut. Still their stock was considered a steal at $15 a share or whatever, and it's depressing to think you missed an opportunity of a lifetime.
- pmorici 16y ago
  It was a steal at ~89 in January of 2009 as well.
DrStalker 16y ago
I was very dismissive of GOOG. Floating an IT company at this time when their only product is a search engine that will be replaced by the first better engine to come along? Stay away from that! In retrospect I should have gone into as much debt as possible and put all that money into Google shares, but figuring out how to make money when you have access to time travel is pretty easy :-)

by cj 16y ago

jtbigwoo 16y ago

Amongst the people I knew (young people with no money), MSFT was seen as a sure thing from about 1990 until 2000. I dissuaded them by explaining that Linux was just around the corner to mess up that sure thing... It's a wonder I was even able to tie my shoes.

prodigal_erik 16y ago

It used to be a cliché in tech journalism that every Apple story described them as "beleaguered". They were regarded as circling the drain for years, and the stock returns here were a lot less enticing back when they were trying to survive in the computer industry.

flomo 16y ago

Apple was a complete and total mess back in 1997. Let me count the ways. - Windows 95 eradicated most of their "ease-of-use" advantage, which destroyed their profit margins - They had a string of serious hardware and software quality problems, leading people to wonder if - Their computers were seriously overpriced. (Not mildly expensive like today, but like half the specs for 150% of the price.) - Their cloning strategy had totally flopped and eradicated their margins even further. - The Newton, which was pitched as a "save the company" thing, had flopped - Apple was trying to sell itself to anyone interested, and nobody would buy - The Wall Street Journal thought there were serious accounting shenanigans going on - And unlike today, they had no consumer electronic products to fall back on. The Mac business was so fucked, it took them about 10 years before they really "fixed" it. And I don't think anyone at the time really could have predicted that Apple would become a consumer electronics juggernaut. Still their stock was considered a steal at $15 a share or whatever, and it's depressing to think you missed an opportunity of a lifetime.

pmorici 16y ago
It was a steal at ~89 in January of 2009 as well.

DrStalker 16y ago

I was very dismissive of GOOG. Floating an IT company at this time when their only product is a search engine that will be replaced by the first better engine to come along? Stay away from that! In retrospect I should have gone into as much debt as possible and put all that money into Google shares, but figuring out how to make money when you have access to time travel is pretty easy :-)