Sun cannibalized itself as Linux cut into its entire server line except for the very top end, and their middle to high tiers were showing up on eBay by firms th

Sun cannibalized itself as Linux cut into its entire server line except for the very top end, and their middle to high tiers were showing up on eBay by firms that went belly-up, further cutting their margins. It didn't help that McNealy followed himself with Zander(ok, but far from McNealy's abilities) and then the utterly useless Schwartz. Many of the others simply could not move fast enough after years of ossified businesses that were lucrative but becoming more limited. Yes, investors were confused (disclosure: I was at VA Linux Systems when it IPO'd) but that's never been a barrier to funding the right thing (anymore than being smart guaranteed you'd pick a winner...if VC's were half as good as they portray themselves, you'd think their win-rate would climb into double digits). The guys holding the moneybags could hire people to do the vetting, but they mostly pick insiders that maybe hit once or have otherwise sucked up with the appropriate fealty to Sand Hill "principles" than much else. When folks spend more effort fine tuning a PPT pitch than an actual business plan, it eventually shows.