Technology Euthanasia

My post on Yahoo! and Icahn yesterday led to a spirited discussion in the Enterprise Irregulars. Most took the position of "time for Jerry and Yahoo! to move on".

So I did some "time shifting" and asked what if Apple today was in the shape it was in 1998 when Jobs was back about a year, and someone made an offer for it.  And Jobs resisted. He would have been lynched like Jerry. But instead of the one-time 30 to 50% acquisition premium his shareholders would have received, he has delivered many, many times that in the decade since. I invoked HP end of 2005 when Mark Hurd had spent a few months there. If someone - private equity, another public company - had made an offer and Mark had resisted he would have been crucified like Jerry. Look what he has delivered since. I invoked IBM in 1993 when Gertsner had been there a few months.

Our capital markets are known to be short term focused but in the last few years we may have become even more so - micro-term, day trading focused. Take the 30 to 50% premium and move on. But Apple, HP, IBM and many others have shown companies can be revived and deliver many, many times that one time M&A shareholder value.

I am not saying Jerry is a Steve, Mark or Lou. But we sure seem to want to do a lot more mercy killing in our industry these days.  Even when the patient and family show signs of fighting on.