Excellent examples. To push the point farther, the Dow Jones Industrial Index tracks a basket of 'best in breed' companies. With the exception of General Electric, every company listen in 1896 is no longer listed. That speaks nothing to the many that were listed and removed over the years. Big companies rise and fall, and we often forget the companies that fail all around us.

indeed, some of the companies listed on the dow jones index managed to run at a profit for one or more years.

I don't quite understand. Why would they do that instead of just raise money from more investors?

> IBM's recent demise

Somebody should let them know!

Certainly on a downward trend of late but ~80BN in revenues last year is far from dead

I'm assuming parent meant IBM's "relatively" recent demise. IBM lost many billions in the early 90s and was close to disaster, at the same time Microsoft (originally an IBM supplier!) was surging.

When I said "change of fate" I meant reversal of fortunes. Not very often the #1 dominant company in an industry sinks and the #2 takes over, which is the scenario I was discussing. Not just a top company declining, but their direct competitor ascending as well.

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