Chris, RE: re:"They for the most part just do not have the life expectancy that many think they have. "
You are posting on the Cisco thread. Do you think Cisco is going anywhere anytime soon? Do you think that Cisco won't be around in 10, 20, 30, 50 years?
Most probably, it won't.
When MSFT went public in 1986, outside of IBM, the two largest software companies in the world were Borland and Lotus.
Hayes was the leader in communications hardware.
Outside of IBM, DEC and WANG sold more hardware to the business market than anyone.
The largest PC company not named IBM was AAPL, who very well won't be around 10 years from now.
This is a volatile industry. Although it isn't a guarantee that CSCO will disappear (in fact, CSCO is a fine company), the odds are against them. And even if CSCO does survive for another 25 years, that is no guarantee that it will be a good investment. Note that IBM is one of the few leaders of the 80's to still be around. It has returned less than 7% to its shareholders since MSFT went public. Perhaps you'll get lucky, and CSCO will be another INTC. But the odds are against it. |
