Oracle as an Oracle
TheAcsMan | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 7:24AM | tagged Bank of America, Chevy Vega, Commvault, Dennis Barnhart, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd, Oracle, Riverbed Technology, VMWare, Warren Buffett | Email Article | Share Article → 
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George Acs Find us on Google+
I've never done well investing in the technology sector, with a couple of notable exceptions
Let me list my failures: Intel, Dell, Hewlett Packard and Yahoo. There may be some others, but there are times when I buy stocks in companies without even knowing what it is that they actually do.
Probably not a good idea.
Nearly 30 years later, I still recall a close call in the technology sector.
I received an allocation in the IPO for hot company called Eagle Computer. It was perceived as a real competitor to the IBM PC back in the very early days when a PC cost about $5,000 or more, if you wanted a second floppy drive for storage.
Funny story.
Its charismatic CEO was killed in a car crash on the day of the IPO.
Only an oracle could have foreseen that.
The underwriters actually refunded money to IPO investors and ran their next IPO a few months later without me. Eventually, the proprietary Eagle Computer, bereft of its guiding light, morphed into an IBM clone and then was sued out of existence by IBM along with some other early players.
In hindsight, maybe that's not such a funny story.
I was spooked by the reliance on a single individual and continue to be so.
Technology seems to be highly linked to charismatic individuals.
Okay, sometimes, like Bill Gates, they're not really charismatic, but in his own way, he was. Who else could turn mosquito netting into a sexy way of saving lives?
Ballmer?